Qatar’s Barclays stake sale stokes Sainsbury talk

Qatar is selling a 1.3 billion pound ($2.1 billion) stake in British bank Barclays (BARC.L), stoking talk it will use a big profit to make a move on UK food retailer J.Sainsbury (SBRY.L).

Qatar owns 26 percent of Sainsbury and the retailer's shares jumped by a fifth last Thursday on talk the sovereign wealth fund was planning a renewed offer for it, after a previous bid attempt failed in 2007.

Qatar Holding is set to make a 600 million pound ($985 million) profit on its Barclays stake, making it the second big Middle-Eastern investor to make a big profit from a stake in the bank this year, after Abu Dhabi made $2.5 billion on the sale of an 11 percent stake in June.

Qatar will remain Barclays' biggest shareholder with a stake of about 7 percent. It is selling 379.2 million shares, which will come from the exercise of warrants for the same amount of shares at a price of 197.775 pence.

Barclays will receive 750 million pounds from the warrants.

The warrants were part of a controversial 5.8 billion pound fundraising by the bank last November, when the bank avoided selling the state a stake by raising money privately.

Roger Jenkins, a top Barclays banker who orchestrated that fundraising, left the bank in August and his new investment firm is working with Qatar, according to an industry source. A spokesman for the firm, which specializes in the Middle East, declined to comment.

The Barclays shares are being sold by Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) via an accelerated bookbuild.

By 0800 GMT Barclays shares were down 4.6 percent at 364.5 pence. Sainsbury shares were up 3.2 percent at 340.8p, valuing the retailer at 6.3 billion pounds.

Sainsbury declined to comment.

The Qatar Investment Authority was mulling an offer at 420p per Sainsbury share, traders said last week, well below its 2007 proposal of 600p a share.

QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen its economy by diversifying into new asset classes. Subsidiary Qatar Holding is its main vehicle for strategic and direct investments by the state.