Investec has sold its UK subprime mortgage business Kensington Group to private equity firms Blackstone and TPG for£180 million (€224m) in cash.

The sale includes certain other Investec mortgage assets, but not Kensington’s Irish subprime operation, Start Mortgages. A spokeswoman for Investec however said that the South African bank is still considering a sale of the Irish operation.

Investec said that the sale of Kensington “supports Investec’s strategic objective to simplify and reshape its specialist banking business and substantially reduces the assets within its legacy non-core business”.

Kensington was acquired by Investec in August 2007 for £283 million.