Atlas Mara to extend reach into Rwandan banking

Atlas Mara, the Africa-focused financial services vehicle spearheaded by former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, is venturing further into Rwanda.

The London-listed company said it was in exclusive talks to buy a 45 per cent stake in Banque Populaire du Rwanda for $22.5m, which it plans to merge with BRD Commercial Bank Ltd, the Rwandan bank that it acquired in 2014.

Atlas Mara said it would also buy secondary shares from local shareholders, resulting in it having a controlling stake of more than 70 per cent in the combined entity, which will be Rwanda's largest bank by branch locations and second-largest bank by assets - with combined assets of approximately $305m.

Atlas Mara represented a dramatic return to the London Stock Exchange for Mr Diamond, who raised $325m for the business after he was ousted from Barclays at the height of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Last year it raised another $300m in a private placement, less than the $400m it was aiming for.

The company, which is aiming to become "sub-Saharan Africa's premier financial services institution, according to John Vitalo, chief executive, involves Mr Diamond working alongside Ashish Thakkar, the head of Mara Group, a $1bn conglomerate with business in 19 African countries.

It has so far bought pan-African group BancABC, 30 per cent of Union Bank of Nigeria - including indirect stakes, and ADC African Development Corporation.

Atlas Mara said last November that it plans to invest $100m to support BancABC.

Mr Vitalo, who worked under Mr Diamond at Barclays - running Africa and the Middle East, joined last year, as did Arina McDonald, formerly of South Africa's Standard Bank, who was hired as chief financial officer. In January, Nigerian lawyer Beatrice Hamza Bassey joined from a New York law firm to be legal counsel.

Mr Thakkar told the Financial Times earlier this year that he believes mobile banking services could unlock the future of finance in Africa, where banking penetration is about 11 per cent while mobile phone usage is around 80 per cent.

Atlas Mara's share price was up 5.6 per cent on the news on Monday, but it is down 43 per cent since listing last year.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation