Bob Diamond's Investment Firm Wins Over Big Backers - Including Morgan Stanley

Tom Burroughes

3 September 2014

More than two years on since he resigned as chief executive of Barclays it appears that Robert Diamond is continuing to make waves at his new berth of Atlas Mara Co-Nvest, the investment vehicle he is involved in that focuses on Africa.

According to Bloomberg, the firm which seeks to fund financial services acquisitions in the continent, now counts Trafigura Beheer – the commodities trader - and Morgan Stanley among its largest shareholders.

Trafigura owns more than 6 per cent of Atlas Mara’s stock, according to its most recent regulatory filing, the news service said, while the US investment firm holds 5.4 per cent. Other shareholders include US investment companies Wellington Management Co and Janus Capital Management, as well as Diamond himself, with a 2.3 per cent stake, it said.

Atlas Mara was listed on the London Stock Exchange late in August, raising $325 million in an initial public offering in December last year.

A few days previously it was reported that Atlas Mara is looking for more acquisitions in Southern Africa after buying lenders in Botswana and Rwanda.

The involvement with Atlas Mara has seen Diamond, who left the UK bank in July 2012, revive his career. He resigned as CEO of the bank as the lender became engulfed in the LIBOR-rigging scandal, a saga that has also seen a number of other banks be hit by regulators. Diamond was renowned or, depending on one’s viewpoint, infamous, for a hard-charging style of management that was associated with the buccaneering excesses of investment banking in the years leading to the 2008 crisis.