Barclays’ South African unit buys Edson store cards business

Britain’s Barclays bank said Wednesday its unit Absa Bank had agreed to acquire the store credit card portfolio of South African clothing and shoe retailer Edcon in a £800 million ($1.2 billion, 992 million euro) deal.

“Absa Bank and Edcon have further agreed to enter into a long-term, strategic relationship under which Absa Bank will provide retail credit to Edcon customers and Edcon will be responsible for all customer facing activities,” Barclays said in a statement.

Edcon is one of South Africa’s largest non-food retailers, with 1,167 stores in the country and the southern African region and more than 3.8 store card customers.

Barclays said it expected the deal to close in the second half of 2012 following regulatory approvals.