Barclays is on the verge of securing a capital injection of about £6.5 billion from investors including Qatar in what would be a coup for the bank, which has shunned the option of taking cash from the Government.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), an existing shareholder, has been in negotiations for several weeks with Barclays. The bank also held talks with the Libyan Investment Authority and Russia’s VTB and Sberbank banking groups, although sources last night suggested that these discussions had not led to any investment.

Last night the parties were attempting to complete the deal. If things go according to plan, an announcement could be made as soon as today, although those involved said that talks may continue into next week.

The plan will help Barclays’s chief executive, John Varley, to recapitalise the bank without government help. Although the exact sum of the injection is not known, it is understood to be close to meeting Barclays’s promise to raise £6.5 billion in fresh capital.

The QIA already has a substantial stake in Barclays after taking part in the bank’s £4.5 billion capital increase earlier this year.

Barclays, along with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS, was recently involved in talks with the Government over a multibillion-pound taxpayer bailout. However, while the other three institutions collectively accepted £37 billion of emergency funding in exchange for giving up significant stakes to the Government, Barclays decided to go it alone, announcing plans to raise £6.5 billion from investors to help to shore up its balance sheet.

Barclays is expected to issue a range of complex capital instruments to its new investors. It may also give existing shareholders the opportunity to participate in the fundraising. The bank has until the end of the year to raise its money or it will be forced to turn to the Government.

In February the QIA, a sovereign wealth fund set up to invest profits from the world’s largest gasfield, said it had $15 billion to spend on overseas financial institutions over the next two years. The £30 billion fund itself is expected to double in size by 2010. When QIA took its first stake in Barclays, in February, Mr Varley said: “The participation of players such as these is one of the most positive manifestations of globalisation. It’s highly positive that there are pools of money that can be put to work in this way. That’s very different to the world of five or ten years ago.”

Shares in Barclays closed up 14.95p at 205.25p yesterday.

Gordon Brown is to visit the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia this weekend and is expected to urge the Gulf states to put more money into the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mr Brown believes the IMF needs substantially more than the current $250 billion set aside for struggling nations.

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