By Pamela Barbaglia
LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays Plc (L:BARC) is in exclusive talks to sell its retail banking business in Portugal to Spain's Bankinter (MC:BKT), a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Two sources said Barclays had accelerated the sale of its retail businesses in Portugal and Italy as the British bank tries to speed up its turnaround plan under new Chairman John McFarlane.
The sources said the talks to sell in Portugal, where Barclays has 85 branches, were more advanced than talks to sell in Italy, where it has 90 branches and has started talks with interested parties.
Both businesses, as well as operations in France, are part of Barclays' portfolio of 'non-core' businesses and assets it wants to sell or run down.
The Portuguese sale is likely to include its retail and corporate banking business, but exclude Barclays' investment banking and credit card operations in the country, one of the sources said.
McFarlane - who fired Chief Executive Antony Jenkins this month - has said he wants to speed up an improvement in Barclays' performance, which includes getting rid of the loss-making European retail banking operations.
Barclays sold its retail and corporate banking and wealth management business in Spain to CaixaBank (MC:CABK) for about 800 million euros ($876 million) in September. The British bank made a loss after tax on the sale of about 500 million pounds.
The Portuguese business is expected to be sold at less than the price Barclays holds its assets at, one of the sources said.
Portugal's banking sector is in a state of flux as authorities try to sell Novo Banco, the third-largest bank in terms of assets, which was born out of last year's state rescue of Banco Espirito Santo.
Bankinter CEO Maria Dolores Dancausa said after results on Thursday the Spanish bank was "more a buyer than a seller" when asked if it was an acquisition target.