Barclays sells indices and analytics business

Barclays has confirmed that it has sold its risk analytics and benchmark indices business to Bloomberg.

The bank announced the sale last Wednesday (16 December), confirming that the financial information provider was sold for £480 million.

Michael Bloomberg, founder of the purchasing company, commented: “As financial markets continue to evolve, our clients need and expect the index business to evolve too.”

Barclays chief executive, Jes Stanley, added that the firm is “pleased to partner closely with Bloomberg upon completion of the transaction”.

A co-branding arrangement between the two businesses will run for five years initially, before being reviewed.

This isn't the first time that Barclays has put this area of its business up for sale; back in 2014 it designated it as 'non-core' and launched an unsuccessful auction after potential buyers realised that Bloomberg owned some bond pricing data associated with the sale, meaning it would not be included in the earlier mooted sale.

Clearly this data issue was not a problem to Bloomberg who saw the purchase as an opportunity to bolster the data it provides. Included in the index business are inflation-linked, fixed income and swaps indices.


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