LONDON (Alliance News) - Barclays PLC on Thursday said it has struck a deal to sell its Italian retail branch network to CheBanca, a unit of Italian investment bank Mediobanca Group SpA.
Confirming a report by Reuters, the FTSE 100-listed bank said the sale will comprise 89 bank branches in the country. It said the financial impact of the sale will be dependent on the balance sheet of the business at completion of the deal, due to occur in the second quarter of 2016.
At present, the company expects the sale to result in a fall in risk-weighted assets of around GBP800.0 million, along with a post-tax loss on the sale of GBP200.0 million, which it will book in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Barclays will continue to manage its investment banking and corporate banking operations in Italy and will continue to manage its remaining mortgage portfolio.
"This transaction is further evidence of the re-shaping of Barclays Group to focus on our core businesses," said Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley, who started in his job on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Barclays (BARC)