Barclays receives strong expressions of interest in African unit

Furthermore, the firm was open to considering selling its full 62% stake in the business, chief executive officer Jes Staley said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

“The idea of keeping some optionality in Africa is attractive, but for sure at some point there is a price where a strategic sale might make sense,” Staley said.

“We have given ourselves time, two to three years, to get the sale done in a way that protects the franchise of Barclays in Africa, because it is a separate bank.”

FTSE-100 listed Barclays purchased South Africa’s Absa in 2005 and three years afterwards its Johannesburg-based unit picked up its parent’s operations in eight African countries, thus increasing its footprint on that continent to a total of 12 countries and 12m customers.

Although Barclays’s Africa unit was quite profitable, under current regulations the group was required to hold the same amount of capital as if it was entirely owned by Barclays, thus depressing the returns made on its equity.

To avoid that penalty Barclays would need to lower its stake in the African unit to below 20%, which would allow it to not have to consolidate its results with those of the rest of the group.

Staley also said he did not believe ex-Barclays boss Bod Diamond had the “financial capability” to buy the entire unit.

As of 14:09 GMT shares in Barclays were edging higher by 0.33% to 168.75p.