Barclays sells non-core assets in Portugal
(3 September 2015 – United Kingdom) Barclays Bank has agreed to sell its Portugal-based non-core assets to Spain's Bankinter SA for approximately €175 million (A$278.6 million), as part of plans to sell assets and cut costs.
The sale includes such assets as retail banking, wealth and insurance management businesses and part of the corporate banking businesses. The price for those assets will be €100m.
Barclays will also sell its insurance business for €75m to Bankinter's subsidiary Bankinter Vida, which operates an insurance joint venture with Mapfre SA.
Barclays expects a reduction of about £1.7bn of risk-weighted assets after the completion of these transactions. In addition, the bank expects to incur a loss of approximately £200m pounds after tax, part of which will be recorded in Q3 2015.
About 1,000 Barclays banking and insurance employees and 84 branches are expected to be transferred to Bankinter and Bankinter Vida.
The bank said it would continue to operate Barclaycard, investment banking and multinational corporate banking in Portugal.
“I am pleased to be announcing further reductions in Barclays Non-Core through the transactions announced today. We remain on track to rebalance Barclays as part of our strategy to deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders,” said Barclay’s Chairman John McFarlane
"I want to take this opportunity to thank our Portuguese colleagues in the businesses we are selling for their hard work and professionalism which has built strong customer and client relationships over many years and has made these businesses so attractive to Bankinter and Bankinter Vida. We will continue to operate our Barclaycard, investment banking businesses and service our multinational corporate clients in Portugal. We believe these are areas where we continue to have a competitive advantage.”
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