Atlas Mara Not Up For Sale, Says Diamond -- Update
08 March 2017 - 2:06AM
Dow Jones News
By Margot Patrick and Matina Stevis
LONDON--Atlas Mara Ltd. (ATMA.LN), the troubled African banking
group co-founded by Bob Diamond and Ashish Thakkar, isn't up for
sale, Mr. Diamond said Tuesday.
He dismissed reports that the bank could be sold, saying its
ambition continues to be to buy more banks and to take full
ownership of Union Bank of Nigeria. Atlas Mara holds just under 30%
of UBN. It's not clear how it could raise funds to purchase the
rest.
He said he'd also "love to buy Barclays Africa," rekindling an
idea he raised in April, without giving any details of how that
might be accomplished. Mr. Diamond previously said his private
equity firm, Atlas Merchant Capital, could partner with other
investors to buy shares in Barclays Africa that are in the process
of being sold by Barclays PLC, but so far no bid has emerged. He
said if he did buy Barclays Africa, he would keep it intact rather
than splitting it up by country.
Mr. Diamond was chief executive of Barclays PLC and at the bank
for 16 years before leaving in 2012. His next major project was
Atlas Mara and he also started Atlas Merchant Capital, a private
equity investor in U.S. and European financial companies and
banks.
Atlas Mara shares are down 80% since floating in 2013, sparking
questions about its future. John Vitalo, the group's chief
executive, abruptly left last month and its chairman role is also
open. Mr. Diamond is acting as temporary chairman, a role he said
he can't keep for long because of London listing rules.
"We expect rocky. We went into this recognizing that this is a
seven- to nine-year journey," Mr. Diamond said. He said listing
Atlas Mara on the London Stock Exchange was the right structure for
a vehicle buying banks, since many regulators wouldn't accept banks
being purchased by private equity funds with a finite life.
Mr. Diamond said that in a highly regulated industry such as
banking, "we're going to be much more welcome as permanent
equity."
Mr. Diamond was speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Investing
in Africa conference.
Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com and Matina
Stevis at matina.stevis@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 07, 2017 09:51 ET (14:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Barclays (NYSE:BCS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Barclays (NYSE:BCS)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024