Barclays subsidiary completes South African deal

6th Jun 2012 10:16

Barclays's South African subsidiary, Absa Bank, is buying up the private label store card portfolio of retail chain Edcon.The £0.8bn deal will also see Absa and Edcon enter a long-term, strategic relationship under which Absa will provide retail credit to Edcon customers and Edcon will be responsible for all customer facing activities.Edcon is a non-food retailer operating 1,167 stores in South Africa, Botswana Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zambia.Completion is expected in the second half of 2012.Barclays shares were up 5.2% by 10:59BS