Barclays’ iShares exchange-traded fund business will be sold to a Luxembourg-based global private equity firm.
“We now have a preferred bidder, CVC Capital Partners,” Barclays said in a statement today.
Barclays was scant on details, but the sale, expected to be finalized as early as the end of this week, is expected to fetch between $4 billion and $5 billion.
As of Dec. 31, iShares was the largest ETF provider in the United States by assets, with $254.7 billion spread across 178 ETFs.
Barclays announced this month that it was in discussions to sell the iShares business, one of its crown jewels, as the bank looks to raise cash to bolster its capital base.
The sale is expected to be limited to the iShares business, not Barclays Global Investors, of which iShares is a part.
David Hoffman is a reporter for InvestmentNews, a sister publication of Pensions & Investments.
