BCS Barclays PLC

(Adds selling price and background)

By Max Colchester

LONDON--Barclays PLC on Tuesday announced a deal to sell its Egyptian retail and corporate bank to Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank S.A., ending the British lender's 152 year presence in the country.

The deal, which is expected to close at the end of the year, was sealed at over $500 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. Offloading the Egyptian business to the Moroccan bank will remove around 2 billion pounds ($2.59 billion) of risk-adjusted assets from Barclays' balance sheet and will offer a small lift to its capital cushion.

Barclays Bank Egypt, which has around 1,500 employees and 56 branches, was once seen as a jewel in the bank's sprawling African franchise. Earlier this year, the British bank outlined a plan to withdraw from Africa and focus instead on the U.K. and U.S. Like other European banks, Barclays is looking to pare back its sprawling business amid low interest rates and increased regulatory pressure. As a big bank, regulators make Barclays hold GBP650 million ($927 million) of extra capital against its Africa unit, an amount that management judged as too onerous.

In May, Barclays raised GBP603 million ($874.1 million) by selling a 12.2% stake in its Barclays Africa business. The Egyptian franchise is not part of that unit and had to be sold separately. The bank is currently in the process of trying to shed another tranche of its stake in Barclays Africa.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 04, 2016 11:49 ET (15:49 GMT)

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