14th Sep 2018 08:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Close Brothers Group PLC said Friday it has sold its retail finance business to Swedish firm Klarna Bank AB.
The FTSE 250 merchant bank didn't disclose the sale price for the unit.
It said the disposal was prompted by its desire to exit the unsecured retail finance market. After assessing the market for a number of years, Close Brothers concluded that the unsecured nature of business activity was not a "long-term fit" for its otherwise secured business model.
The retail finance unit, which provides unsecured loans to customers, had a loan book of GBP66.0 million as of July 31 this year. Close Brothers said the business will be treated as a discontinued operation in the full-year results to be released September 25.
Close Brothers anticipates the disposal being completed within this calendar year, pending regulatory approval among other standard conditions.
Close Brothers share were trading up 0.5% at 1,598.00 pence on Friday.
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