Barclays PLC on Wednesday said it would book a €260 million pretax loss after agreeing the disposal of its Italian mortgage portfolio.

The high street lender expects to take the loss in the year to December while the deal will also release around €0.9 billion of risk-weighted assets at completion.

The portfolio represents the majority of Barclays’ overall Italian retail mortgage book and the transaction is expected to be broadly neutral to Barclays’ CET1 ratio, the company said.

Barclays said the deal values the portfolio at around €3.3 billion and as a result of the proposed securitisation, Barclays will receive cash proceeds of around €400 million.

The lender said the deal is in line with its ambition to simplify Barclays and support its focus on growing its key businesses. The transaction is not expected to impact the planned financial distributions of Barclays.

Barclays said the transaction is expected to be financed via a securitisation.

Funds and accounts managed by GoldenTree Asset Management LP have entered into a commitment letter under which they will purchase certain notes to be issued by a newly incorporated entity, Miltonia Mortgage Finance Srl, to which the portfolio is expected to be transferred.

Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Completion is expected in to occur during the second quarter.

Shares in Barclays closed up 0.2% at 192.56 pence in London on Wednesday.

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