Former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has teamed up with US private equity group, Carlyle, to prepare a bid for Barclays Africa, which was put up for sale earlier this year.<\/p>\n
This is according to the Financial Times,<\/a> citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n Barclays Africa Group, which includes Absa, claimed in March that there is no lack of interest from buyers seeking a stake in the company after Barclays announced that it will be selling down its stake to less than 20% over the next two to three years.<\/p>\n Barclays has a 62% stake in the unit, which has a market capitalisation of R122 billion ($8.5 billion).<\/p>\n The FT said that regulators are expected to block any attempt of a merger deal between Barclays Africa and other local banks, including Nedbank and FirstRand.<\/p>\n The FT initially reported that Diamond was seeking investment to buy up Barclays Africa operations outside of South Africa\u00a0–\u00a0in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda.<\/p>\n These 11 countries account for about 20% of Barclays Africa\u2019s profits.<\/p>\n In an updated report, however, the paper inferred that a bid would include South Africa.<\/p>\n It said that he may seek other investors in addition to Carlyle, including Ashish Thakkar, founder of the Mara Group conglomerate.<\/p>\n Atlas Merchant Capital and Carlyle declined to comment.<\/p>\n Fitch downgrades Barclays Africa on sale plans<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Barclays Africa may already have a willing buyer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Barclays is selling off its stake in Absa \u2013 confirmed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Barclays<\/h3>\n