thisismoney.co.uk
27 Jun 2008
Barclays' 'coup' in signing up a spate of Middle Eastern and Asian investors is not quite all it seems.
In fact, the prospectus reveals it had to pay them a cash sweetener to persuade them to buy shares in its £4.5bn fundraising.
The UK bank has agreed to shell out £60m in 'commission' fees to those who agreed to subscribe to its offer of 1.6bn new shares.
This means Qatar's Investment Authority will be handed £26m by Barclays for taking up to £1.8bn of shares at 282p each.
Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, and his family will get £8m, enough to buy a couple of luxury yachts. Singapore's Temasek and China Development Bank will get paid too.
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