Barclays is to give up its retail and
commercial banking operations in Russia, less than three years
after it paid $745m to acquire 32-branch-strong Expobank.
On 15 February, Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, said
that the bank would exit the retail sector as it was unable to
compete in the Russian market.
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Based in Western Russia, Expobank had assets
of $186m when it was snapped up by Barclays in the summer of
2008.
At the time of the acquisition, Barclays
said:
“By 2011, we expect that the transaction will
generate economic profit, will be earnings accretive and will
achieve a return on investment significantly above the cost of
equity.”
Fast forward less than three years and
Barclays has performed a U-turn by announcing plans to focus solely
on investment banking in Russia.
