Bob Diamond, the former CEO of Barclays Bank has announced that he is seeking to acquire African financial services companies companies that can help businesses manage currency and commodity risks on the continent. He mentioned this in a discussion with reporters today in Lagos, Nigeria. He said his company, Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Limited would be making the first of a number of acquisitions within a year. Though he declined to comment on potential takeovers, he said his firm plans to tap its “operational expertise” after making purchases.
According to Diamond, “This is very, very different from a private equity fund because it gives us an opportunity to be much more concentrated and to be really running a bank. We’re operators more than investors.”
“My interest in Africa is long standing,” said Diamond, adding that the continent’s financial services industry needed to become more sophisticated. “It seems so clear to me that private sector growth is the single most important thing today that can help Africa continue to develop economically, create jobs and create economic growth.”
According to Bloomberg, Diamond quit Barclays in July 2012 after the British bank admitted rigging global interest rates, and Ugandan entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar raised $325 million in an initial public offering for Atlas Mara in December. They committed $20 million of their own money to the venture.
During his tenure as CEO, Diamond sought to boost Barclays’s profitability by combining its African operations with those of Absa Group Ltd., the South African lender in which it acquired a majority stake in July 2005.
Atlas Mara will focus on getting loans to consumers and businesses, said Diamond, adding agricultural lending is an area of interest for his firm.
