BG reporter

Barclays has closed the curtain on its global custody business with the sale of its Botswana unit to Standard Chartered worth P103.5 million.
Barclays plc in April announced that it has agreed to sell its custody business in Africa. Barclays Botswana Managing Director, Thuli Johnson said this week the purchase consideration represents 1.86% of market capitalisation of Barclays Bank of Botswana of P5.581 billion as at April 27, 2010.
Custody business is a service that financial institutions provide for a customer’s security. Barclays said the consideration is to be satisfied by payment of P20 million to Barclays and balance of P71 million to Barclays.
The value of net assets of Barclays is about P36.5 million, representing 0.0003% of the value of the total net asset of Barclays Bank of Botswana. Barclays expects to benefit from the sale of its custody business as it noted that proceeds of the sale will reinforce the development of profitable operations consistent with Barclays Africa strategy and proceeds of the sale will be paid to its shareholders, while local minority shareholders will receive their proportional share.
Barclays African custody business is a pan-African securities and custody business which covers 16 markets from its operations in eight countries (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe).