The former high profile Barclays chief executive invested $16m of his own cash alongside African billionaire Ashish Thakkar, who has put in $4m of funding.
Atlas Mara Co-Nvest is a shell company which it said in a statement will aim to target a “company or business in the financial services sector with all or a substantial portion of its operations in Africa.”
Media reports suggested that this acquisition is expected to be a small bank in sub-Saharan Africa which could be expanded across a number of countries.
In its statement, Atlas Mara Co-Nvest highlighted a number of “important” geographical criteria for its jurisdictions search:
- strong underlying fundamentals and clear broad-based growth drivers
- a meaningful population and an identifiable market
- established financial services regulatory systems
- stable political structures
- strong or improving governance and anti-corruption ratings
“There are significant gaps in the market today including the need for capital created by European financial institutions retreating to their home territories due to the sovereign debt crisis and the Basel III regulatory framework at a critical time for growth in Africa,” the directors stated.
They added that this situation “gives an opportunity to create a financial institution that provides leadership, liquidity, access to investors, product innovation, and technology to support economic growth and strengthen financial systems in Africa”.
Thakkar is the head of Mara Group, a $1bn conglomerate with business in 19 African countries.
Arnold Ekpe, former chief executive of pan-African lender Ecobank, will be the chairman of the company.
Diamond resigned from Barclays in July 2012 after US and UK regulators fined the bank £290m because its staff had tried to manipulate the benchmark rate Libor.
