Barclays sells Spanish businesses

Barclays Bank has agreed to sell part of its Spanish business for £633m to the country's third largest lender CaixaBank.

The sale includes Barclays' retail, wealth management and corporate banking business in Spain.

In a statement, Caixa said the deal involved 270 branches and approximately 555,000 new clients.

Barclays is reorganising its business by cutting jobs and selling off parts of its European operations.

In May, it announced plans to cut 19,000 jobs by 2016, of which 9,000 will be in the UK, as well as to create a "bad bank", which included its retail banking operations in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France.

The idea behind the "bad bank" was to

group together businesses no longer considered central to Barclays, with a view to selling them off or listing them on the stock market.

"We were clear [in our update in May] that this business, while not central to Barclays' strategy, could be attractive to another owner - and today's announcement reflects that perspective," said Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays.

"Under the ownership of CaixaBank, a leader in retail banking in Spain, these businesses will have a greater opportunity to grow and thrive," he continued.

The deal does not include Barclays' Spanish credit card operations or its investment banking business.

"This acquisition will enable us to enhance our personal and private banking businesses in Spain, strengthening our counselling offer to our customers," said the chief executive of CaixaBank Gonzalo Gortazar.

BBC Business