 [Biznews.com] Two days after Nenegate, we reported that the UK’s largest retail bank Barclays Plc had decided to offload its R120bn South African subsidiary Absa. That marked a significant reversal in a strategy which has seen SA’s largest retail bank progressively change its image -- with the Absa red and name progressively giving way to Barclays blue -- including the listed company whose name was changed to Barclays Africa. But according to the Financial Times of London, the new Barclays management team has gone through the motions over the past three months and is set to confirm the biggest disinvestment in South Africa since the spate that hit the country during the mid 1980s. Sceptics are concerned that the Barclays sale will spark a similar exodus. |