Barclays has agreed to sell its retail banking operations and other non-core assets in Portugal to Spain’s Bankinter for almost EUR175m.
Apart from retail banking, the deal includes sale of assets including Barclays’ wealth and insurance management operations, and part of its corporate banking business in Portugal.
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The bank has also agreed to offload its insurance unit to Bankinter’s subsidiary Bankinter Vida, which runs an insurance joint venture with Mapfre.
Following completion of the deal, about 1,000 Barclays banking and insurance employees, and 84 branches will be transferred to Bankinter and Bankinter Vida.
According to Barclays, the sale is likely to trigger a post-tax loss of about £200m and reduce its risk-weighted assets by about £1.7bn.
The transaction, which subject to regulatory approval, is slated to close in the first quarter of 2016.
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By GlobalDataHowever, the bank would retain its Barclaycard, investment-banking and multinational corporate-banking divisions in Portugal.
The sale of the Portuguese assets is part of Barclays chairman John McFarlane’s turnaround plan to divest assets in order to reduce costs.
"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," McFarlane commented.
