Britain's Barclays Plc said on January 16 it knew of no justification for the big fall in its share price and it expects next month to report pretax profit for the year "well ahead" of analysts' estimates. In a statement issued after the bank's shares closed down 24.85 percent, it said: "The board of Barclays knows no justification for the fall in the share price.
"Barclays will announce full results for the year ended December 31, 2008 on February 17, 2009. "The board of Barclays expects to report profit before tax for the year, after reflecting all costs, impairment and market valuations, well ahead of the 5,300 million pounds ($7.91 billion) consensus estimate of sell-side analysts." The bank added: "Further, Barclays expects to report a year-end equity tier one capital ratio and tier one capital ratio, on a pro forma basis reflecting the conversion of the Mandatorily Convertible Notes, of approximately 6.5 percent and 9.5 percent respectively."