Qatar cuts stake in Barclays with £510mn stock sale

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Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is slashing its stake in Barclays, the UK lender whose shares are down more than 12 per cent this year.

Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, was Barclays’ second-biggest shareholder, according to Bloomberg data.

The fund launched the sale of almost 362mn shares, worth about £510mn, on Monday afternoon.

The bank’s chief executive, CS Venkatakrishnan, is under pressure to win round investors to a strategic overhaul he is planning to reveal next spring.

The QIA helped bail out Barclays during the global financial crisis 15 years ago.

This is a developing story