Member Article

Barclays agrees to sell 89-strong Italian retail banking network

International bank Barclays PLC has today agreed to sell its Italian Retail Banking network of 89 branches, including a broadly balanced portfolio of assets and liabilities, to CheBanca!, a member of the Mediobanca Group.

Barclays will continue to operate investment banking and corporate banking in Italy. It will also continue to manage the remaining retail mortgage portfolio.

The financial impacts of this transaction on Barclays are dependent, among other things, on the balance sheet of the business at completion of the transaction and foreign exchange movements up to completion.

The current estimate is that the transaction will result in a 30 September 2015 pro forma decrease in risk weighted assets of approximately £0.8bn on completion, along with a loss after tax of approximately £200m, which will be booked in Q4 2015.

The total impact of the transaction once completed is expected to result in a small decrease in Barclays’ CET1 ratio and tangible net asset value.

Completion is subject to, among other things, regulatory approvals, and is expected to occur in Q2 2016.

Jes Staley, Barclays Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “This transaction is further evidence of the re-shaping of Barclays Group to focus on our Core businesses. 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.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank our Italian colleagues in the businesses we are selling for their hard work and professionalism which has built strong customer and client relationships over many years and has made these businesses so attractive to CheBanca!. We are committed to making the transfer to CheBanca! a smooth one for our customers and colleagues.”

Barclays Investment Bank and Lazard acted as financial advisers to Barclays on this transaction.