Barclays Selling Stake to Fund Bank Battle

Barclays Bank is poised to sell a significant piece of itself to fund its bitterly contested takeover battle for Dutch bank ABN Amro, the Wall Street Journal reports. Barclays is close to a deal with Singapore's government-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings and another investor. A 10% stake is worth up to $9.6 billion. 

The deal would give Barclays deeper pockets to fight off a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is also trying to buy the Dutch bank in what would be the biggest bank takeover ever. ABN had accepted the Barclays bid before the consortium made a counter offer. (More Barclays stories.)