Barclays subsidiary completes South African deal

Barclays's South African subsidiary, Absa Bank, is buying up the private label store card portfolio of retail chain Edcon.

Barclays's South African subsidiary, Absa Bank, is buying up the private label store card portfolio of retail chain Edcon.

The £0.8bn deal will also see Absa and Edcon enter a long-term, strategic relationship under which Absa will provide retail credit to Edcon customers and Edcon will be responsible for all customer facing activities.

Edcon is a non-food retailer operating 1,167 stores in South Africa, Botswana Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zambia.

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Completion is expected in the second half of 2012.

Barclays shares were up 5.2% by 10:59

BS