StanChart to buy bulk of Barclays' India cards biz-sources

Mumbai: Standard Chartered has agreed to buy more than half of Barclays' Indian credit card portfolio at a discount to its book value, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Standard Chartered will buy 170,000 credit card accounts in India from Barclays, which has about 300,000 customers for its cards business in the country, said the sources, who declined to be named as the information was not public yet.

UK-based Standard Chartered and Barclays declined to comment.

Standard Chartered will pay less than half of the book value of the 170,000 Barclays credit cards, which is estimated at 1.8 billion rupees ($35 million), one of the sources told Reuters, adding that the deal was likely to be announced later this week.

SBI Card, a joint venture between the country's top lender State Bank of India and GE Capital, and Standard Chartered and were competing to buy Barclays' India credit cards business, sources.

Barclays put its India cards unit up for sale earlier this year as part of a restructuring of its business in the country.

Source: Financial Express