Barclays is selling its Italian retail banks to Mediobanca’s CheBanca! business
Barclays is about to offload its Italian retail banking operations, the company announced today.
It will sell its network of branches, amounting to 89 in total, to CheBanca! – a unit of Italian investment firm Mediobanca.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of next year, and is part of Barclays' decision to focus on its “core business”, according to chief executive Jes Staley.
In a statement he said:
This transaction is further evidence of the re-shaping of Barclays Group.
We continue to make progress in the reduction of Barclays non-core as we target risk-weighted assets of around £20bn at the end of 2017.
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The deal is still dependent on regulatory approval. Barclays added that the value will be determined by the company's balance sheet at the time of the transaction. The firm also expects to suffer a post-tax loss of £200m in the fourth quarter thanks to the sale.
Following the transaction, Barclays will continue to operate its investment baking and corporate banking activities in Italy.