South Aftrican lender Standard Bank announced its plan to sell a major stake in its London-based trading business. The deal was reported to be worth more than USD500 million. This was according to a report by Reuters.

Sources told Reuters previously that the bank was in talks to sell the global markets business to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Standard Bank's top shareholder. However, the bank did not yet confirm this information, said the report.

ICBC owns 20% of Standard Bank. Last year, ICBC closed a sale on 80% of Standard Bank's Argentine unit stake, the report stated.

In its statement on Friday, Standard Bank said it was selling its majority stake in its London trading unit outside of Africa. The bank also said it planned to keep a minority stake in its London trading unit in order to maintain a patent access for its African cusomter, the Reuters report explained.