Bloomberg: Barclays Plans Sale Of Index Unit

(RTTNews) - British lender Barclays plc (BCS, BARC.L) plans to solicit offers for its index business that could fetch $400 million in a sale, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

According to the Bloomberg report, CME Group Inc. (CME), which had approached Barclays about buying the Index, Portfolio and Risk Solutions or IPRS unit last year, is expected to make an offer. Barclays reportedly started to explore options for IPRS after it is said to have received an offer from MSCI Inc. (MSCI) in November 2013.

IPRS is a provider of indices and portfolio analytics. IPRS manages benchmarks including the U.S. Aggregate Bond Index as well as other indexes acquired as part of Barclay's acquisition of assets from Lehman Brothers Holdings after its collapse in 2008. IPRS also markets portfolio management software to investors.

BCS closed Tuesday's trading at $15.85, up $0.31 or 1.99 percent on a volume of 4.29 million shares.