Barclays share price: Group completes French business disposal

Barclays (LON:BARC) has completed the sale of its French retail business to private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners, the FTSE 100 company has said. The move comes as the blue-chip lender continues to trim non-core operations under chief executive Jes Staley.

Barclays’ share price has been little changed in London this morning, having added 0.08 percent to 191.26p as of 10:29 BST, slightly underperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.20 percent higher at 7,445.78 points. The group’s shares have added more than 11 percent to their value over the past year, but have given up some 14 percent in the year-to-date.

Barclays announced in a statement this morning that it had completed the sale of its French retail and wealth and investment management business to AnaCap Financial Partners. The sale covers network of 74 retail branches, a life insurance business, wealth and investment management, and brokerage operations. The company noted that the business will retain the Barclays brand for a period of up to 12 months.

“Today’s completion shows the continued benefit of Barclays’ focused approach to reducing its non-core assets and releasing their value,” Barclays’ chief executive Jes Staley commented in the statement adding that the move also marked the sale of the group’s last retail banking operation in Continental Europe.

The sale comes after Staley recently noted in Barclays’ interim results statement that the restructuring of the group’s business to focus on operations in the UK and the US was now complete.

The 20 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Barclays for the Financial Times have a median target of 231.00p on the shares, with a high estimate of 265.00p and a low estimate of 175.00p. As of August 25, the consensus forecast amongst 24 polled investment analysts covering the blue-chip group advises investors to hold their position in the company.

As of 10:52 BST, Friday, 01 September, Barclays share price is 191.00p.