BARCLAYS Plc declined to comment on a media report that the third-biggest United Kingdom bank had agreed to buy a 19.9 percent stake in Xinhua Trust Investment Co in the western Chinese city of Chongqing.

The Shanghai Securities News earlier reported that Barclays had signed a letter of intent to buy the stake in Xinhua Trust. Chongqing-based Xinhua Trust, founded in 1979, managed assets of more than seven billion yuan (US$910 million) last year, the newspaper said.