US tax reform, litigation costs push Barclays into red in 2017

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Barclays said in a statement that it posted a net loss of £1.922 billion ($2.7 billion, 2.2 billion euros) last year compared with profit of £1.623 billion a year earlier.

London, United Kingdom /AFP/. British banking giant Barclays said Thursday that losses related to the sale of its African business, litigation costs and a one-off negative impact from the US tax reforms pushed it into the red in 2017.

Barclays said in a statement that it posted a net loss of £1.922 billion ($2.7 billion, 2.2 billion euros) last year compared with profit of £1.623 billion a year earlier.

The lender said the loss resulted from £1.2 billion in litigation costs, a loss of £2.5 billion related to the sale of Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) and a one-off net tax charge of £0.9 billion due to the remeasurement of US deferred tax assets in the fourth quarter of 2017.

By contrast, pre-tax profit rose by 10 percent to £3.5 billion last year, Barclays said.