Barclays said today it had raised £603m from the sale of a 12.2% stake in Barclays Africa Group, boosting its key capital ratio by 10 basis points.
Barclays is selling down its 62% stake in the South African lender as part of a plan to simplify the bank's structure, shore up its balance sheet and generate higher shareholder returns.
Following completion of the placing, the UK lender will hold 424.7 million ordinary shares in capital of Barclays Africa, representing about 50.1% of its issued share capital.
Barclays did not give any details on the investors who took part in the placing, but South Africa's state pension fund Public Investment Corporation (PIC) was in discussions on Wednesday to acquire up to 10.3 million shares.
PIC is Africa's largest fund manager with more than $122 billion of South African government employee pension assets under its custody.
It is already the second-biggest shareholder in BAG with a holding of about 6%.
