Atlas Mara Not Up For Sale, Says Diamond -- Update

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 [e-mail] and Matina Stevis at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 07, 2017 09:51 ET (14:51 GMT)

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