Barclays turns to Lovells for credit card portfolio divestment

Lovells has secured a win over rival panel firms to advise Barclays on the sale of part of a consumer credit card portfolio.

The firm won a pitch to advise Barclays on the £390m cash sale of part of its Monument credit card portfolio to two subsidiaries of CompuCredit Corporation.

Clifford Chance has become the bank's corporate counsel of choice, having been selected to advise on its merger with Dutch bank ABN Amro and on its acquisition of South African bank Absa in 2005.

Senior legal counsel for corporate and M&A at Barclays Khasruz Zaman said: "We select firms from our panel on a case-by-case basis and we felt that Lovells had the right M&A experience for this transaction.

"They've had done a lot of work on other transactions and are well equipped to deal with the regulatory requirements."

Barclaycard will retain a proportion of the Monument portfolio, which will be integrated into the main Barclaycard-branded book.

Lovells corporate finance partner Hugh Nineham, who led the team, said: "The whole process took a number of months and it was a complicated transaction. We've done a lot of work on M&A on the consumer side."