UK’s third-largest bank Barclays Plc is in talks with South Africa’s biggest consumer lender Absa Group Ltd. to buy a 60% stake in the company for as much as $5.2 billion (31.4 billion rand).

Under the terms, Barclays will pay 79 rand a share with the possibility for Absa’s shareholders to get 1.8 rand a share, Absa announced on Monday.

Some analysts say the purchase was caused by the estimate that the South African market grows faster than the market of UK.

Absa is the fourth-biggest bank by assets in South Africa. It has 6.3 million customers and about 670 branches.

Barclays’ return on equity amounted to 19.2% annually for 2004, while Absa saw a return of 24.2% in the six months to September 30.