By Max Colchester

Barclays PLC said Thursday that it had agreed to sell its Portuguese and Spanish credit card business to local player Bancopopular-e, the latest move by the British lender to pare down its European presence.

The British banks said in a statement that it would sell the Barclaycard payments unit, which is made up of GBP1 billion ($1.46 billion) of assets. The deal which is subject to regulatory clearance should be complete by the end of the year. Bancopopular-e is a Spanish online bank 51% owned by Varde Partners and 49% owned by Banco Popular Espanol, S.A. The sale doesn't impact Barclays's investment banking operations in the country. The deal should cut Barclays's risk adjusted assets by GBP900 million.

Barclays has been shedding unwanted assets as it tries to free up capital to invest in more profitable parts of its empire. In 2014 Barclays sold its Spanish retail business to Caixabank SA at a loss. Wednesday the bank said it had entered into discussions to sell its French retail business. If that deal goes ahead, Barclays will have largely completed its retreat from continental Europe, chief executive Jes Staley said Wednesday.

Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2016 05:16 ET (09:16 GMT)

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