The recession may have knocked down or otherwise affected several huge business houses across the world. Barclays, however, refuses to be cowed down by these problems.

The Barclays brothers have reportedly bought three prestigious five-star hotels in London, worth £695 million. According to reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), they have acquired Claridge's, The Connaught and Berkely.

The deal to acquire these three hotels was made with the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), which was established to combat debts that were incurred as a result of the property market crash in 2009. The three hotels were bought, back in 2005, by an Irish property corporation - the Maybourne Hotel Group, with loans from two Irish banks - Allied Irish Banks and Anglo Irish Bank, reported Air & Business Travel News.

The Barclays brothers purchased the hotels by buying out the loans from NAMA, which took ownership of the bad property debt from Irish banks during the peak of the financial crunch.

Meanwhile, reports said NAMA is looking to dispose off approximately 5 billion Euros worth of bad UK loans, in 2011.

The Barclays brothers also own the Daily Telegraph.

Barclays London