EDITORIAL: Barclays makes a graceful exit
While losing so large a foreign direct investor is not good for SA, the divestment could be good for the local banking group
After a rocky start in March 2016, when the UK banking group abruptly and unceremoniously announced its intention to dump its South African subsidiary, the divestment this time has been much smoother than anyone might have expected. That’s good for confidence in Barclays/Absa and in SA’s banking sector generally. And while losing so large a foreign direct investor is not particularly good for SA, especially at a time when it is receiving little other foreign direct investment, the divestment could well be good — or at least not bad — for the local banking group. On Thursday, the UK group revealed that it had placed 33.7% of its South African subsidiary’s shares in the market in a deal worth almost R38bn. It was a lot more than the 22% it had planned to place this time round, which means that instead of dragging on, the sell-down is now done and dusted — assuming all the regulatory clearances will be granted. This week’s placing of shares in the market via an "accelerated bookbuild",...
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