Barclays has agreed a deal to buy the credit card accounts of Citibank's UK online unit Egg for an undisclosed sum.
Barclays says that Egg's credit card portfolio comprises 1.15 million credit card accounts with approximately £2.3 billion of gross receivables. Barclays intends to integrate the accounts into its credit card division, Barclaycard.
Chris Lucas, group finance director of Barclays says: "The acquisition of Egg's UK credit card accounts has been priced at a significant discount to gross receivables. Based on current projections, we expect the transaction to exceed the financial return targets set out at our recent results announcement."
Citibank acquired Egg from UK insurer Prudential for £575 million in 2007. The US bank has been looking to offload the business for some time as part of its non-core asset disposal programme, instituted in the wake of the credit crisis.
Completion of the deal is subject to competition clearance, and is expected to occur during the first half of 2011.