LONDON, Feb 20 Reuters Barclays reported a 6 fall in annual profit on Tuesday, in line with expectations as Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan set out a welter of plans including bumper buybacks, an overhaul of its operations, cost cuts and asset sales to improve performance and lift shares.

Barclays will reorganise its business divisions, return 10 billion pounds 12.59 billion to shareholders between 2024 and 2026, and restructure its payments business, Venkatakrishnan said alongside the bank39;s fullyear results for 2023.

The lender39;s first strategy update in almost a decade marks an inflection point for the CEO known internally as Venkat, as he tries to improve returns after a period of management turmoil, selfinflicted wounds and underwhelming results.

Investors in Barclays, which has one of the lowest valuations among its European peers, have grown impatient with its wilting share price and some favour derisking the lender by simplifying its investment bank, Reuters reported earlier this month.

The bank reported a pretax profit of 6.6 billion pounds, down from 7 billion pounds the year before and in line with the 6.7 billion pounds average of analysts39; forecasts as compiled by the bank.

Barclays said it would return a total of 3 billion pounds to shareholders for 2023 up 37 on the previous year including a fresh share buyback of 1 billion pounds and a 5.3 pence per share final dividend.

NEW STRUCTURE

Barclays said it would reorganise its business into…