Barclays former Russian unit switched to original name

The former Russian retail business of British bank Barclays , which was sold to local banker Igor Kim last year, has switched to its original name of Expobank, the lender said in a statement on Wednesday.

Barclays agreed in March 2008 to buy Expobank for $745 million (470 million pound), or four times book value, before the global crisis slashed sector valuations to a fraction of that level.

Unable to compete on the local market, where some 60 percent of assets are split between state-controlled lenders, Barclays decided in February last year to sell the unit for an undisclosed sum and focus on investment banking.

Expobank said on Wednesday it is going to rebrand the former Barclays retail business during spring-summer 2012.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

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