Barclays ups Africa business stake sale to 34%

Barclays has increased the size of the sale of its stake in Barclays Africa Group due to "strong investor demand".

The bank has agreed to sell 286m or 33.7% of BAGL's issued share capital, raising around £2.2bn. Late on Wednesday, Barclays had said it would sell around 187m shares, or a stake of around 22%.

Following completion of the sale - the net proceeds of which will be used for general corporate purposes - it will hold 139m ordinary shares in BAGL. Of that, 12.7m shares will be contributed to a black economic empowerment scheme in due course, leaving a residual holding of approximately 15%.

The share placing is the second part of Barclays' plan to sell down it stake and deconsolidate the Africa unit from its accounts.

Barclays said it's estimated that when full regulatory deconsolidation of BAGL from the group is achieved, this will result in 73 basis points accretion to the group's common equity Tier 1 ratio, including the increase resulting from the placing.