Barclays completes sale of Spanish business to CaixaBank

2nd Jan 2015 11:45

Barclays has completed the sale of its Spanish subsidiary for an estimated €800m (around £630m) in cash.The completion of the sale to Barcelona-based lender CaixaBank, which was initially announced on 31 August 2014, follows receipt of regulatory and other approvals and will be reflected in Barclays' first quarter 2015 results.The deal, although it represented a loss of £500m and reduced tangible net asset value by about 1%, is expected to improve the UK banking group's capital ratios and lift 2015 earnings by 2-3%.Some investors and analysts were also disappointed with the price as the business was sold for just 0.5 times book value.Caixa's purchase of Barclays Bank SAU includes operations in retail and corporate banking as well as wealth and investment management almost all of which are exclusively in Spain.?But Barclays is not selling its investment bank and Barclaycard credit card operations in Spain.