Morning:
6°c
John Varley declined to say anything when I suggested to him this morning that his strategy to avoid being bailed out by the Government had finally been vindicated.
But the fact is that he remains in his job while rivals Sir Fred Goodwin, Andy Hornby and Sir Victor Blank have lost theirs.
Today's deal gives Barclays one of the strongest balance sheets among its peers and finally nails the myth that it will need to raise even more capital.
Barclays also retains a 20% stake in BlackRock Global Investors (nice trick keeping the BGI initials) where Varley and Bob Diamond will take seats on the board.
Varley is right to argue that investment banking and fund management must be seen to be separate by both regulators and clients.
The deal looks too good either for Barclays to turn down or anyone else to match. BlackRock is paying eight times earnings compared with five times on recent similar deals.
Barclays paid $450 million (£272.5 million) for what was then part of Wells Fargo back in 1995 merging it with its own nascent fund management arm. This created what was essentially the world's first passive index investor allowing institutions to track global share prices and avoid risk.
The £5.3 billion profit which Barclays (and the £700 million plus shared by hundreds of BGI's employees) collects today reflects the risk it took 15 years ago and the amount of energy and innovation it has pumped into BGI since.
He wouldn't say it but I will. John Varley is vindicated today.
