Mumbai: Barclays plc, Britain's third-biggest bank, will acquire Russia's Expobank for $745 million (£373 million), in its first overseas banking acquisition since it lost a bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro last year.

Expobank, owned by Petropavlovsk Finance, has 32 branches, mainly in western Russia, including Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Barclays said in a statement.

Petropavlovsk Finance is in turn owned by VMHY, which has four shareholders, including mining entrepreneur Peter Hambro.

Barclays, based in London, is paying about four times book value for the Russian bank as believes that buying Expobank is a quicker way of establishing a presence and obtaining a Russian banking licence.

Expobansk has 250,000 retail customers and 6,500 small business customers in Russia.

Barclays expects the acquisition to boost earnings, giving the bank a return on investment significantly above the cost of equity by 2011.

The deal is expected to close in the summer, and to boost earnings by 2011, Barclays said in the statement.

"Expobank is a well-run bank with a good track record of innovative distribution and represents a great opportunity for Barclays," chief executive of Barclays' global retail and commercial banking operations, Frits Seegers, said.

Barclays already offers investment banking services in Russia through its Barclays Capital subsidiary.