Barclays executives will meet Friday with some main investors. If the executives can’t quell opposition to a £7bn (€8.1bn) capital-raising plan that will sell almost a third of the bank to Middle Eastern investors, then management heads could roll, bankers said.

Barclays has agreed to sell as much as a 32% stake in itself to Qatari investors and Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family. Qatar and Sheikh Mansour would each invest £1.5bn in so-called Reserve Capital Instruments, which will pay a generous 14% dividend for ten years.