Report: Barclays Sells iShares ETF Line
April 8th at 2:40pm by Tom Lydon
Sources are saying that it’s become official: Barclays has sold its line of iShares exchange traded funds (ETFs) to a European private-equity firm.
The deal with CVC Capital Partners is said to be worth $4.4 billion, and it would leave Barclays with a 20% stake in the business, report Sara Schaefer Munoz and Dana Cimilluca for The Wall Street Journal. Barclays was apparently so eager to get a deal done that it agreed to lend CVC as much as 70% of the purchase price.
They hope to announce the deal by Thursday, but sources say it could still be delayed.
The iShares unit offers 360 ETFs around the world, and contributed a huge portion of the bank’s profits in 2008.
