Barclays is selling a bulk of its Portuguese assets - but the deal will lose it £200 million
The British bank just confirmed in a regulatory statement this morning that it will sell a bulk of its corporate banking businesses in Portugal Spain's Bankinter and its insurance business to Bankinter's subsidiary Bankinter Vida.
Barclays did not put numbers to the deal in the statement but Reuters cited €175 million (£128 million) and €100 million (£153 million) for the two deals, respectively.
Barclays said it was not exiting the Portugal market completely as it will continue to operate Barclaycard, investment banking and multinational corporate banking in the country.
The move falls in line with Barclays Chairman John McFarlane's turnaround plan to reduce the bank's risky asset holdings and cut costs.
Barclays said the current estimate of the transaction will result in a major decrease of £1.7 billion ($2.6 billion) on completion of the deal and improve its balance sheet. However, this will be accompanied with a loss after tax of approximately £200 million ($305 million). It added that this loss will be booked in its third quarter results.