Barclays to sell Entercard stake to Swedbank for $273 million

LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Barclays BARC.L has agreed to sell its stake in joint venture Entercard Group to partner Swedbank AB SWEDa.ST for an estimated 2.6 billion crowns ($273.2 million), the British lender said on Thursday.

The sale continues Barclays' efforts to dispose of non-core operations in recent years. In April it agreed to sell most of its British payments business to Brookfield Asset Management.

Swedbank will buy out Barclays' stake in Entercard, which provides consumer credit in the Nordics, at the 2.6 billion crown book value estimated in March and will pay in cash.

Barclays said the sale should release 900 million pounds ($1.22 billion) of risk-weighted assets, increasing its common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio by around 4 basis points.

The deal is expected to complete by the end of the year.