Barclays Halves Stake in Absa Via $687 Million Stake Sale
- British lender offloads 7.4% stake in Africa’s Absa Group
- Placing will increase Barclays’ CET1 ratio by 10 basis points
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Barclays Plc has sold a 7.4% stake in former African unit Absa Group Ltd for 526 million pounds ($687 million), cutting its holding by half.
The firm priced an accelerated placing of 63 million shares at 164 rand each ($10.88), according to a statement Thursday. That was a 7.3% discount to the Johannesburg-listed stock’s Wednesday close. Barclays gathered enough investor orders to cover the sale within minutes of opening the book, terms seen by Bloomberg showed.