Barclays PLC has sold shares equivalent to a 12.2% stake in South Africa-based Barclays Africa Group, to a number of institutional investors including the Public Investment Corporation, Africa's largest fund manager.

Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays, said: “This is an important first step as we seek to reduce our shareholding in Barclays Africa to a level that achieves accounting and regulatory deconsolidation. As we said at our Q1 results, we continue to explore opportunities to reduce our shareholding, including capital market and strategic options.”

Barclays has sold 103,592,491 ordinary shares in the capital of Barclays Africa at a price of ZAR 126 per share through an accelerated bookbuild placing, raising aggregate gross sale proceeds of approximately ZAR 13.053m.

Following completion of the placing, Barclays PLC’s total interest in Barclays Africa has been reduced from 62.3% to 50.1%, representing 424.7 million ordinary shares.

“Barclays Africa is an important partner, and we are working closely with local management, including planning for the operational separation of the two businesses in a way that will preserve value for shareholders in both the Barclays and Barclays Africa groups,” Staley added.

Although Barclays Plc did not give any details of the investors who took part in the placing, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has previously confirmed its intention to be an anchor investor in the placing for up to 10.3 million shares, representing up to 1.2% of Barclays Africa’s issued share capital, the maximum permitted without regulatory approvals.

Barclays Bank PLC, acting through its investment bank (Barclays Investment Bank) has acted as sole global coordinator and joint bookrunner together with Citigroup Global Markets, J.P. Morgan Securities (which conducts its UK investment banking activities as J.P. Morgan Cazenove) and UBS Limited (the “Managers”) who, together with Barclays Investment Bank, have acted as joint bookrunners on the placing.