Barclays Reportedly Struggling to Sell Merchant Payments Stake

Barclays is reportedly having trouble unloading a stake in its U.K. merchant payments unit.

That’s according to a report Friday (Sept. 13) by Reuters, which cited sources who say the difficulty is down to differing views on that business’s valuation.

Brookfield, which manages more than $825 billion in assets, was one of the private equity firms that walked away from bidding in recent months, chiefly because of Barclays’ asking price, two of the sources said.

Other sources said that the negotiations have been complicated by the takeover of Takepayments, one of Barclays’ partners in payments, adding this reduced revenues. However, one source said the bank remains open to selling a stake in the business.

Selling is a complex proposition because of the technology and the financial arrangements involved, Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said in June.

“As we confirmed at our February investor update, we are exploring a number of options for investment in our market-leading merchant acquiring business, including strategic partnerships,” a Barclays spokesperson told Reuters.

PYMNTS has contacted Barclays for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The bank announced last December that it was weighing its options for the payments business and had marked down its value by £300 million ($392 million).

Reuters noted that the difficulties facing Barclays follows a sell-off in the European payments sector across the last three years, triggered by revenue concerns at companies like Nexi, Adyen and Worldline.

Last week, Worldline’s board announced that Gilles Grapinet would step down as CEO and board member at the end of the month, with the company seeking a new chief executive who will work with the board to come up with a new strategic plan.

In announcing this leadership change, Worldline also noted that it had experienced “slow trading conditions coupled with specific performance issues” in parts of its business over the summer.

Worldline also issued a profit warning on Friday, its third this year, with the company’s shares hitting a record low.

In other Barclays news, last week saw reports that the bank was working with Goldman Sachs to purchase a $2 billion portfolio of loans made to General Motors customers.

Assuming the deal goes through, Goldman would sell the portfolio of loans to Barclays at a discount to the value of the outstanding balances.

Goldman CEO David Solomon said last week that the banking giant had made “significant progress on the transition of the GM card platform” and that it anticipated a $400 million hit from that and its other small retail ventures.