Barclays sells Barclays Africa stake down to 50.1 percent

Barclays has sold down its stake in its African subsidiary to 50.1% after a placing in South Africa with institutional investors at a price of 126 rand (584p) that valued the shares at 13.05bn rand (£603m).

Confirming an announcement from late on Wednesday, Barclays' investment bank coordinated a placing of 12.2% of Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) shares with and the group has agreed a 90-day lockup over the remaining majority stake.

In March, new chief executive Jes Staley announced a set of strategic initiatives that included plans to divest part of the group's 62% shareholding in Barclays Africa over the next two to three years to allow it to de-consolidate the subsidiary from an accounting perspective and, eventually, a regulatory perspective.

Analyst Gary Greenwood at Shore Capital said he understood Barclays was likely to need to cut its ownership to below 20% as part of this regulatory de-consolidation strategy.

"Only then will Barclays be able to reap the capital benefit of this process."

Combined with the proposed dividend cut to 3p per share in 2016 and 2017 from 6.5p in 2015, Greenwood said this was expected to add at least 100 basis points to the CET1 ratio, which stood at 11.3% at the end of March versus a management target of around 13%.

Shares in Barclays, which earlier this year sunk to their lowest point since 2009, were down 0.22% on the day at 161.9p.