Arrivederci: Barclays ditches more of its Italian non-core assets
Barclays today announced it has agreed to sell of more of its non-core assets in Italy.
The banking giant revealed it would be selling a portfolio of non-core performing and non-performing small business and corporate loans to AnaCap Financial Partners, but did not disclose a sale price.
The portfolio, which has a book value of roughly €177m (£152.7m) of gross receivables, will reduce non-core risk weighted assets by around £78m.
The sale is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2017.
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"Barclays Non-Core looks remarkably different today than it did a year ago – in that time we have completed the sale of a number of businesses, including our Portuguese and Italian retail banks, our southern European cards business, our Asian Wealth business and our index and risk analytics business, as well as reducing and simplifying our legacy derivatives and loans books," commented Harry Harrison, head of Barclays Non-Core. "We look to continue this success in 2017."
Although the bank will keep its feet in Italy through its corporate and investment banking business, Barclays completed the sale of its Italian retail network to CheBanca! last August. While the bank's Italain residual mortgage portfolio and other non-core retail and wealth loans are still part of Barclays Non-Core, it intends to run them down or exit them in due course.
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The bank's non-core division continues to weigh heavy on its results. In Barclays' financial figures for the first nine months of 2016, profits before tax in the core business rose four per cent to £4.9bn, while losses in non-core plummeted 33 per cent to just shy of £2bn.
Shares in Barclays are trading up trading up 0.1 per cent at 227.55p at time of writing.