Barclays suffers $1.6 billion first-half loss from Africa sale

London: Barclays reported a 1.2 billion pound ($1.57 billion) attributable loss for the first half of the year, as it suffered a loss on the sale of its Africa business.

The lender reported a 1.4 billion pound loss on the sale of 33 percent of Barclays Africa Group, and a further 1.1 billion pound impairment charge on the sale. 

Barclays on Friday posted a half-year profit before tax of 2.3 billion pounds compared with 2 billion pounds for the same period a year ago, before the impact of the Africa sale was included.

That was worse than the 2.7 billion pounds average estimate of analysts` forecasts compiled by the bank.