Barclays Africa Sale Means Late Nights for Banks Breaking Up
- U.K. lender hasn’t sought permission to cut stake below 50%
- Barclays Africa is worst-performing South African bank in 2016
Barclays Plc sold the first slice of its controlling stake in Barclays Africa Group Ltd. just two months after Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley laid out his strategy to boost capital. Here’s why the bank’s next move has taken much longer and some key issues the 365-year-old lender must overcome to speed up its two- to three-year timeframe for the sell down:
Project teams are working late nights at Barclays Africa to make sure every detail is taken into account, according to the Johannesburg-based lender. The South African Reserve Bank must ensure Barclays’s withdrawal doesn’t endanger stability across the continent, put South Africa’s currency at risk or upset transactions for Barclays Africa’s 12.5 million customers. Also at stake is the future of 41,250 employees at the company formerly known as Absa Group, more than 70 percent of whom are in South Africa.