Premarket London: Barclays Swings to Loss in 3Q, Warns on 2020 Profit

Investing.com — Here’s a summary of the most important regulatory releases on Friday morning from the London Stock Exchange. Please refresh for updates.

• Barclays (LON:) upheld its profitability targets for 2019 and 2020, despite taking a 1.4 billion pound ($1.81 billion) charge for PPI mis-selling that pushed it to a loss of 292 million pounds in the quarter.
• Advertising group WPP PLC (LON:) said revenue from continuing operations rose 5.2% in the third quarter to 3.29 billion pounds, although the gain was a more modest 1.9% when adjusted for currency swings.
• The group, which was profoundly shaken by the disorderly exit of long-standing CEO Martin Sorrell last year, said all of its geographical regions improved compared with the first half, although the adjusted revenue the key North American market was still down 3.5% on the year.
• Restructuring under new chief executive Mark Read has brought net debt down to 4.48 billion from 5.10 billion a year ago. That will fall further when the company books an expected 3.1 billion from the sale of a 60% stake in market research group Kantar, which shareholders approved on Thursday.

• Operating income at 5.08 billion pounds was up 4.2% from a year earlier. Earnings per share of -1.7 pence were below forecasts for 6p, while revenue of 5.54 billion pounds was comfortably ahead of the 5.2 billion consensus.
• The bank said it’s still aiming for a return on tangible equity of over 9% this year and over 10% for 2020, but it warned that “global macroeconomic uncertainty and the current low interest rate environment” make it “more challenging to achieve these targets, particularly with respect to 2020.”

• Glencore (LON:) shaved its production forecasts for zinc and copper. It now expects to produce about 1.01 million tons of copper this year from its non-African business, compared to an earlier forecast of about 1.025 million tons.
• It also cut its zinc output forecast for this year by 7% to 1.11 milion tons.
• Coal production rose 8% to 1.04 million tons year-to-date thanks mainly to last year’s acquisitions.

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