Barclays bank offloads Italian branches

Troubled British bank Barclays said Thursday it will sell its Italian retail branch network at a loss to a division of Italy's Mediobanca as part of its ongoing restructuring.

Barclays said in a statement that it would offload the 89 branches to Mediobanca division CheBanca! and expected to make a loss after tax of about £200 million ($300 million, 283 million euros). The deal is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of next year.

"This transaction is further evidence of the re-shaping of Barclays group to focus on our core businesses," said chief executive Jes Staley.

"We continue to make progress in the reduction of Barclays non-core as we target risk weighted assets of around £20 billion at the end of 2017."

Barclays added that it would continue to operate investment banking and corporate banking in Italy, and would also carry on managing its remaining retail mortgage portfolio.