World Animal Protection UK

A pig is looking out of a cage. It looks sad and frightened.

Barclays’ £185 million loan support linked to JBS tax avoidance structure

News

JBS, the world’s biggest meat producer and Barclays its biggest investor.

Barclays is facing serious questions after new findings reveal it channelled over £185 million1 in loans to companies within the JBS group that are registered in Luxembourg and Bermuda, two jurisdictions widely recognised as tax havens 2, despite JBS having no operating business activities in either location.

The discovery comes from our new research, combined with separate analysis by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). This is the first time Barclays’ involvement has been publicly highlighted.

Income moved out of the UK

Between 2017 – 2024, JBS shifted £397 million3 in taxable income, from its UK company Onix Investments UK Ltd, which owns Moy Park, to its Luxembourg company, Sandstone Holdings Sarl, paying a tax rate of only 0.10% during this time4. In comparison, the UK income tax rate was 20.3%3. 

By using this structure, JBS has capacity to be able to avoid over £83 million in UK income tax3. This comes at a time when the UK government is making huge cuts to the welfare budget and is in desperate need of tax funding for cash strapped public services5.

To crack down on UK tax avoidance, in April, Chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced a target to claw back tax by £7.5bn within five years6.

Meanwhile, Barclays is assisting JBS, a company worth over £11.5bn7, to avoid paying its fair share to the public purse.

This is a scandal. As the UK’s most popular bank, trusted by a nation who pride themselves on loving animals. Barclays should be doing far, far, better not only for animals but for their customers and the natural world. JBS are a brutal, destructive company. Barclays must stop financially aiding them.

Lindsay Duncan, World Animal Protection UK Farming Manager

Barclays identified as JBS’ largest global finance provider

Barclays is identified as the world’s biggest financier of JBS9, arranging an estimated £5bn for the company since 201510 and making at least £1.3bn in profit from this financing.11

Polling commissioned by World Animal Protection shows 75% of UK consumers are worried about Barclays’ financial relationship with JBS.⁸

A company with a history of serious concerns

JBS is the world’s largest meat producer and kills around 13 million farmed animals every day.

Undercover investigations relating to JBS-linked operations have documented serious animal welfare concerns.13

The company has faced repeated criticism globally for issues linked to deforestation, environmental violations and regulatory breaches.

In June, JBS floated on the New York stock exchange. This came just six months after a $5 million donation from Pilgrims Pride their US subsidiary, to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

This was the single largest contribution to the event. On October 6th it was reported that Donald Trump had a friendly call with Brazilian President Lula. Donald Trump met with JBS co-owner, Joesley Batista after he became President and before this phone call.

In the UK, JBS owned Moy Park farms, have violated environmental regulations hundreds of times including breaching the legal limit of gases coming from animal faeces14.

Frango sozinho, criado em um sistema industrial

Tell Barclays to stop funding animal cruelty

Barclays must stop investing in JBS

Barclays is the UK’s biggest investor in factory farming, using their customers’ money to pour billions into JBS, the world’s largest meat producer and one of the worst offenders for animal cruelty and environmental destruction.

Sign the petition now

Stats

  1. Barclays poured a combined £185 million into JBS through a USD 170 million loan in 2022 (Loan agreement here) and a USD 60 million loan in 2023 (Loan agreement here). Exchange rate conversions here.
  2. The Tax Justice Network ranks Bermuda at no.3 and Luxembourg at no.10 on their list of jurisdictions who are the world's biggest enablers of corporate tax abuse (see their Corporate Tax Haven Index here: Corporate Tax Haven Index
  3. JBS, through its UK registered company Onix Investments UK Ltd, transferred £397 million in taxable income to Luxembourg. By doing this, it is in a position to avoid £83 million in UK company taxes. The breakdown in USD (original currency) can be found here, and the breakdown converted into GBP can be found here.
  4. Total tax payments made by Sandstone Holdings Sarl for the period 2017-2024 were £0.31 million, while the entity's pre-tax profit for the same period was £315 million.  Breakdown can be found here.
  5. The UK government has made huge cuts to the welfare budget https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-cuts-labour-un-welfare-bill-uc-health-b2825495.html
  6. In her spring statement, Chancellor Reeves discussed the use of a whistleblower scheme to crack down on tax avoidance. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/26/tax-avoidance-whistleblowers-will-earn-share-of-any-hmrc-proceeds-rachel-reeves-confirms
  7. In September 2025, JBS has a market cap of £11.59 billion https://companiesmarketcap.com/gbp/jbs/marketcap/
  8.  The polling research was conducted by Censuswide with 4,000 UK General Consumers (18+) between 24.02.25 – 11.03.25
  9. Barclays is the world’s largest funder of JBS https://www.banktrack.org/article/barclays_is_biggest_financier_of_discredited_meat_giant_jbs_raising_questions_ahead_of_agm
  10. Barclays funnelled approximately £5bn into JBS (converted from USD) from 2015 https://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/Feedback-JBS-Apr23-Proof05.pdf
  11. Barclays earned approximately £1.3bn from its funding in JBS between 2018-2023. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/meat-giant-jbs-guts-human-rights-commitments-and-sidesteps-climate-scrutiny-bid-nyse-listing/
  12. JBS slaughters over 13 million animals every day.   https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/english/jbs-profiting-from-cruelty-and-killing-our-world-report.pdf
  13. A Mercy for Animals investigation into twelve JBS chicken farms and pig slaughterhouse showed poor confined conditions and docked tails https://animalequality.org.uk/blog/the-largest-meat-company-in-the-world/
  14. Since 2017, Moy Park has breached legal environmental limits on hundreds of occasions https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clll3r0e33no