Strategic Financial Management(business report) Essay

Strategic Financial Management(business report) - Essay Example Barclaycard provides the following products / services in the UK: According to the latest company estimates2, nearly 10.1 million people in the UK carry Barclaycards, of which 565,000 are Barclaycard Business corporate card holders and currently the number of Barclaycard International cards in issue totals 7.6 million. The company has business relationships with close to 93000 retailers and merchants and 24 million outlets that accept Barclaycards globally. The detailed resource analysis involves an analysis of financial, marketing, operations and HRM policies of the company so as to provide an insight into the company’s strategic positioning and overall business performance in the above mentioned key areas. The Barclays group showed significant performance during the financial year 2007 in spite of adverse market conditions. The reduction of 1% in profit before tax was well compensated by the 3% rise in the profit before business disposals. The overall profit growth exceeded that of the previous year with a continuous development in its UK businesses as well as substantial investments in the international branches. The strategic decision of diversifying its business portfolio paid off well in terms of generating good shareholder value, which led to a declaration of an annual dividend amounting to 22.5p per share totaling 34p during the year, amounting to a total 10% increase. A sharp reduction of 11% in the retail impairment charges on loans and advances was observed during the year which fell from  £1,809m in 2006 to  £1,605m in 2007. There was a marked improvement in the Barclaycard impairment charges to an astonishing 21% which fell from  £1,067m in 2006 to  £838m in 2007. This reduction could mainly be attributed to the factors such as reduced flows into delinquency, reduction in the levels of arrears and lower charge – offs in UK