11 OCTOBER 1997, Page 32

The Oozlum Bank

IT IS clear to me that Martin Taylor, Bar- clays' chief executive, is evolving a financial version of the Oozlum Bird. This explains why Barclays is now flying round and round in ever-decreasing circles. One of these days it will disappear up its own share regis- ter and blow raspberries at its pursuers. Hence his decision to shred BZW, which is or was Barclays' investment bank. He can see that in New York, another investment bank, Salomon Brothers, is being bought for $9 billion. That quells any remaining urge to buy something in New York for BZW. Quite the converse: if there are buy- ers who are willing to pay that sort of money for businesses in corporate finance or share dealing, Mr Taylor will be happy to oblige them. When he dons Barclays' buying boots, he can never find anything cheaper or better for his bank to buy than shares in Barclays. He has bought them in quantity on a rising market, he has promised to spend up to £700 million on buying more, and if he can get a decent price for the bits of BZW he has so sum- marily put up for sale, that will give him even more money to buy more of Barclays' shares with. He would certainly say that Barclays is a better business than it was when he came to it and I still yearn to see him build it. If, though, he is committed to the Oozlum strategy, Barclays' last two shares should be worth having and he and I must arrange to own them.