In November 2008, Barclays chief executive John Varley and his finance director, Chris Lucas, looked like the smartest bankers in town.
While Barclays' rivals HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland had plunged over the proverbial financial cliff, with nothing left between them and bankruptcy but the taxpayer, the duo finalised a sovereign wealth fund bail-out that pulled the British bank back from the edge of the credit-crisis precipice.
The recapitalisation deal saw the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al- Nahhan, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family, and Japanese bank Sumitomo pump an extra £6.8bn of capital into the bank. While the deal ruffled the feathers of Barclays' City shareholders, it did at least leave the bank triumphantly independent.
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