Big support for bank rights issue

The banking giant offered the new shares at a deeply-discounted price in the biggest rights issue seen in the City since 2009.

The move was part of its “bold but balanced plan” for meeting the City regulator’s demands that it plug a £12.8bn hole in its finances.

Barclays today reported 94.6 per cent take-up for the shares in the offer, with the remainder offered in the wider market by underwriters.

Boss Antony Jenkins is leading a crusade to overhaul the culture at the bank, with a major restructuring in the wake of last year’s Libor scandal.

However the bank’s reputation has taken further blows after it revealed that it is facing a £50 million fine over claims it acted ‘’recklessly’’ in its multi-billion pound bailouts from Qatar in 2008.

The 185-page prospectus for the rights issue also disclosed that it would have to pay £100m in refunds to around 300,000 customers after making errors in personal loan paperwork.

Shareholders were given four options in the fundraising - take up the rights, sell the rights, sell enough rights to cover the cost of taking up the remainder, or do nothing.

Former chief executive Bob Diamond, who was forced out of the bank in the wake of its Libor scandal in 2012, was among those to buy shares in the rights issue.

He told CNBC television last Friday: “I’m bullish on Barclays....Barclays has become a better and strong institution.”