Barclays in talks to sell Italian loans worth 4 bln euros - sources

By Massimo Gaia

MILAN, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) is in talks to sell Italian performing mortgages worth 4 billion euros ($4.46 billion), two sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the British bank presses ahead with the sale of European assets.

Potential bidders have a Thursday deadline to submit binding offers, they said, adding that the deal is part of a plan to sell a wider portfolio of Italian mortgages.

U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . money manager Christofferson, Robb & Company, a duo comprising U.S. hedge fund Elliot Management and Italian credit firm Fonspa, and a bidding group made up of private equity firm Oaktree and Italian bank Creval are in the race, one of the sources said.

A spokeswoman for Barclays in Italy and the potential bidders declined to comment.

Barclays said last year it planned to sell its continental European retail banking operations and had put them in a non-core unit with other assets it intended to sell or run down.

The bank has sold its retail banking operations in Spain and Portugal - but kept some activities, such as investment banking and credit cards - and is still looking to sell assets in Italy and France.

Barclays said it had 11.9 billion pounds ($18.27 billion) of residential mortgage exposure in Italy at the end of June, down from 13.5 billion pounds at the start of the year. ($1 = 0.6513 pounds) (Additional reporting by Luca Trogni in Milan and Steven Slater in London, writing by Danilo Masoni)