The bank would invest more than GBP 600 million into its merchant acquiring business as part of a medium-term deal to cede control of it to Brookfield.
After months of negotiation, the bank is set to offload control of its UK payments business to the Canadian company. The two companies are in the final stages of talks about the transaction which will initially enable Brookfield to acquire 10% of the UK bank’s merchant acquiring division. Three years after the deal is completed, Brookfield would acquire another 80% of the unit, leaving Barclays as a 10% shareholder.
The bank was exploring a sale or partnership opportunity back in February 2024 for its merchant acquiring division. Estimates of the value of Barclays' merchant acquiring arm have varied, ranging from less than GBP 775.7 million to GBP 1.94 billion.
Following the finalisation of the agreement, Barclays is expected to invest GBP 400 million into the payments division in order to fund investment in returning it to sustainable growth. Barclays would also provide roughly GBP 250 million of regulatory capital required to secure approval for the deal.
The deal could be announced later in March 2025, according to company representatives. Both Barclays and Brookfield declined to further comment of the transaction.
In February 2025, the bank disclosed a series of alleged misconduct issues that have put it under investigation. The banking group was probed by the FCA over reported tax controls against AML and financial crimes.
The British lender also disclosed the civil enforcement investigation in its annual report published alongside its fourth-quarter earnings, which included a GBP 90 million provision for potential car finance mis-selling costs as a result of a separate FCA probe.
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