Diamond’s New Venture Plans to Acquire African Bank

LONDON - The investment company Atlas Mara Co-Nvest, backed by the former Barclays chief executive Robert E. Diamond Jr., has made its first purchase, a majority stake in a venture focused on the African financial sector.

Atlas Mara announced on Monday that it had agreed to take the stake in ABC Holdings, which operates the African bank BancABC, and to acquire its controlling shareholder, ADC African Development Corporation, for about $265 million in cash and shares.

“When we founded Atlas Mara, we did so with the intention of identifying and partnering with exceptional multi-country African financial services companies,” Mr. Diamond said in a statement. “Our objective is to build Africa’s premier financial services group leveraging the access to capital, liquidity and funding that we at Atlas Mara can provide.”

The deal is the first acquisition by Atlas Mara since the company was formed last year by Mr. Diamond and Ashish J. Thakkar, an entrepreneur whose Mara Group conglomerate has technology, manufacturing and real estate interests in 19 African countries.

Atlas Mara raised about $325 million last year and was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

As part of the ABC deal, Atlas Mara asked that trading of its shares and warrants be suspended by the stock exchange until after the transaction is completed, which is expected by Aug. 31. Atlas Mara will then seek to resume trading in London.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

BancABC, which dates to 1956, operates in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and has a group-services office in South Africa. The company, based in Botswana, is listed in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The bank posted operating profit of 258 million pula, about $29.4 million, in 2013. The company had assets of 15.8 billion pula.

Mr. Diamond left Barclays in July 2012 under pressure from regulators in London and Washington. In June of that year, the bank agreed to pay $450 million to the British and American authorities to settle charges that it had manipulated a global benchmark, the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

Mr. Diamond, a former bond trader at Morgan Stanley, also worked at Credit Suisse and BZW, which became the foundation of the investment unit known as Barclays Capital. Mr. Diamond built that business into a global giant and became chief executive of the parent company in January.