Barclays bond index unit hits market; may fetch $400 mln -sources

By Mike Stone

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc haslaunched a long-anticipated sale process for its Index,Portfolio and Risk Solutions (IPRS) business, which could yieldaround $400 million for the UK bank, according to peoplefamiliar with the matter.

A process for the unit kicked off in early June withindications of interest from prospective bidders due later thismonth, the people said this week, asking not to be named becausethe matter is not public.

The business has attracted preliminary interest from severalparties, including MSCI Inc, Standard & Poor's, FTSE, Markit Ltd, Bloomberg LP and ThomsonReuters Corp, Interactive Data Corp thepeople added.

Reuters first reported in November that Barclays beganexploring options for the index business following an approachfrom MSCI, another index business.

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment. Representativesfor MSCI, Markit, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters did notimmediately respond to requests for comment. Representativesfrom FTSE, Standard & Poor's and Bloomberg declined to comment.

The index business Barclays intends to sell includes abasket of over 98 major indexes, according to its website. TheU.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which Barclays bought as part of theLehman Brothers acquisition during the financial crisis, isamong the platform's best-known offerings.

The index business, known as a market leader, would attracta wide range of buyers such as equity indexes, and investmenthouses with distribution platforms, people familiar with thematter have said.

But other index providers are also looking to ramp up theirofferings. FTSE, which is owned by the London Stock ExchangeGroup Plc and is one of the dominant index providers inEurope, has said it wants to increase its U.S. presencesubstantially.

In addition, the risk solutions side of the business unithas software tools used by institutional investors to performanalysis of their holdings. The two sides of the business areseen as compatible and would not need to be split prior to apotential acquisition, the people said. (Reporting by Mike Stone in New York. Editing by Andre Grenon)