By Ivan Anderzhanov.
British bank Barclays is close to selling its Russian retail and commercial banking business to Kazcommertzbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest lender.
Barclays could agree to the sale of Expobank as soon as next week, according a report by the UK broadcaster Sky News.
The UK high-street lender will continue to do business in the country through Barclays Capital, its investment banking unit. The British rival has also offloaded its retail arm after failing to make any impact in the face of state banks.
Barclays, which plans to restrict its Russian business to investment banking, will hardly raise more than 7bn rubles ($250m) via the sale, according to prior reports by Russian business daily Kommersant.
In March 2008 the London-based firm bought Russian lender Expobank for a top-of-the-market price of $745m in a bid to build a retail platform in Russia. Last year it sold 14 Russian retail outlets to Renaissance Credit.
In April HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, announced it was shutting all its retail and private banking business in Russia in ditching plans to boost its retail presence in the country.
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