Telegraph.co.uk

Barclays chief executive John Varley as good as apologised to the bank's shareholders today who have seen the value of their investment tank since the meltdown in the credit markets began a year ago.

'Our shareholders have endured a lot,' Mr Varley admitted as he expressed his personal disappointment at Barclays share price, which has almost halved in value over the last year.

He made the comments as Britain's third-biggest bank delivered further bad news to shareholders, including a 33pc fall in profits, a £2.5bn writedown, and no increase to the dividend payout.

Shares in Barclays were trading at 712.5pc a year ago, 49pc lower than this morning's price of 363p.

'We are, and we will be, working as hard as we can to create the conditions that enable a higher price to be placed on our shares over time,' Mr Varley said.

However, he gave investors little to cheer about in terms of the outlook in the short-term, warning that the economic downturn presented risks to the bank's volumes.

He said that Barclays had continued to reduce its risk exposure which, combined with the increasing diversification of the business, was mitigating the damage to profits.

'But it would be wrong to suggest that the market conditions over the foreseeable future will be anything other than tough, not least because we are now seeing the impact of slowing economies around the world and that means that we must remain very vigilant to managing risk,' he said.

'In some areas of our business, it may take quite some time for volumes to be restored to those we have seen in the past.'

Barclays' pre-tax profit fell by 33pc to £2.75bn in the first half of the year to June 30, compared with £4.1bn in the same period last year. Pre-tax profit at Barlcays Capital - the investment banking division and most affected by the credit crisis - plunged 68pc to £524m from £1.66bn.

The interim dividend was held at 11.5p a share, and will be paid.

Barclays increased its market share of UK mortgages to 26pc over the first half, significantly ahead of its 6pc share the year before.

The bank, which spent most of last year trying to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro, has insisted it does not need to raise more capital after securing £4.5bn last month from selling shares to investors and sovereign wealth funds last month.

It plans to use the money to boost its equity Tier 1 capital ratio, which measures a bank's ability to absorb losses, to more than 5.8pc, below the levels at RBS and HBOS, the UK's biggest mortgage lender.

Shares fell by 6 to 363p this morning.

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