Bob Diamond suffers shareholder opposition at Atlas Mara AGM

Bob Diamond suffered a mini-rebellion on Tuesday at the annual meeting of his Africa-focused financial services vehicle Atlas Mara when a small percentage of attending shareholders voted against him being re-elected to the board.

Of the votes cast, 8.8 per cent opposed the American investment banker. None of the other directors, including Atlas Mara co-founder Ashish Thakkar, received more than 0.91 per cent of votes cast against their reappointment.

The London-listed company said it did not know who voted against the former Barclays chief executive or why, but that the votes were cast through US-based proxy agent Glass Lewis.

Glass Lewis recommended that investors vote against Mr Diamond's re-election to the board because it judged that as the company's founder he did not meet the proxy group's requirement for members of the audit committee to be independent.

Mr Thakkar, the head of Mara Group, a $1bn conglomerate with business in 19 African countries, does not sit on the audit committee.

A person familiar with the situation said most of the investors that voted through Glass Lewis had voted in favour of Mr Diamond's re-election, but some smaller ones appeared to have delegated their voting decision to the proxy company.

Atlas Mara said in a statement: "We have always been committed to listening to shareholders and addressing any fundamental concerns they have. We will continue to engage closely with them."

The votes cast against Mr Diamond but not other directors account for approximately 5.6 per cent of the issued share capital. According to the shareholder register issued on April 13 no one has that sized voting rights.

Trafigura Holding has 6.23 per cent, Clough Capital Partners has 6.86 per cent and Owl Creek Asset Management 7.99 per cent.

The other shareholders with more than 5 per cent of the voting rights are Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, which as 11.22 per cent, Janus Capital Management, with 11.15 per cent and Wellington Management Company, with 10.04 per cent.

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. It is aiming to become "sub-Saharan Africa's premier financial services institution.

Last month it 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's share price was unchanged on Wednesday at $7.10. It is down 37.7 per cent from its peak reached shortly after listing last year but off its April low of $6.

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