Atlas Mara’s Diamond Sees the Chance to Acquire Banks in Europe

By Richard Partington

Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd. (ATMA) co-founder Robert Diamond said he sees opportunities to buy banks in Europe as well as Africa.
“The opportunity for us as a merchant bank to acquire banks, not just in Africa, but really in the developed markets is terrific,” the former chief executive officer of Barclays Plc said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua and Guy Johnson on Friday. “Because of Basel III and the much higher capital ratios, many banks, particularly in the euro zone, are exiting non-core businesses, not just assets but whole businesses.”
Atlas Mara, co-founded by Diamond, 63, and Ugandan entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar, has been expanding by buying African financial services companies. The company acquired ABC Holdings Ltd. and ADC African Development Corp. last year and bought a stake in Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. in September.
“So many banks are forced to get rid of non-core assets,” said Diamond, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The strategic buyer for bank
assets for decades has been the other big banks. Because of regulation the other big banks are not acquiring, they’re selling, so they are trading at very low valuations, fractions of book value often.”

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd. Co-Founder Robert Diamond speaks during a Bloomberg Television... Read More

He said Barclays’s sale of its Spanish operations to CaixaBank SA in September for 800 million euros ($908 million) was “a good acquisition for the bank that acquired it” because it was sold for about 50 percent of book value.
Diamond quit as Barclays CEO in 2012 after the London-based bank was fined for manipulating benchmark interest rates. Thakkar and Diamond raised $325 million in an initial public offering for Atlas Mara in 2013.