Barclays completes £9.5bn BGI sale

1st Dec 2009 17:39

Barclays has completed the sale of its Barclays Global Investors (BGI) business to investment manager BlackRock for $15.2bn (£9.5bn).The deal, announced on 12 June, was partly paid for with 37.6m Blackrock shares, which gives UK bank Barclays a 19.9% stake in the US firm.Barclays said it expects to realise a net gain after taxation and transaction costs of $9.7bn (£6.2bn), reflecting the price of BlackRock common stock of $227.This transaction would have added an estimated 185 basis points (bps) to Core Tier 1 and 124bps to Tier 1 capital ratios as at 30 June 2009."This transaction gives Barclays material economic exposure to a highly competitive global asset manager," said Barclays chief executive John Varley. "It also clears the way for a new commercial relationship between Barclays and BlackRock.""Going forward, we will be able to derive new business opportunities for Barclays, in particular in Barclays Capital and Barclays Wealth, benefiting both our clients and our shareholders."