Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond eyes bid for Barclays Africa assets

The move follows the bank’s announcement that it will sell 62 per cent stake in Barclays Africa Group on Tuesday

Mr Diamond helped expand Barclays in Africa and his new company, Atlas Mara, tops a small list of potential buyers of Barclays' Africa business. (EPA)

Bob Diamond, the former Barclays chief executive, is approaching investors to back a takeover for a part of the bank’s African business, according to a report.

The move, reported by the Financial Times, follows the bank’s announcement that it will sell 62 per cent stake in Barclays Africa Group on Tuesday.

The deal would be a comeback for Diamond who created the London-listed Atlas Mara vehicle to invest in African banks after he was ousted as Barclays’ chief executive in 2012 amid the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Atlas Mara currently lacks the financial muscle to complete a deal by itself but sovereign funds in the Middle East and Asia are seen as the most likely sources of funding.

But raising the money might be a challenge for Diamond as Atlas Mara market capitalisation is £230 million. This is significantly lower than the £1.5 billion that Barclays’ operations outside of Africa are expected to be worth.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for him. It is a very difficult transaction in my view but if anyone can pull it off it is definitely Bob," a source who knows Diamond cited by the Financial Times said.

Shares in Barclays Africa tumbled on Monday after Barclays said it might withdraw after almost a century on the continent. Africa's growth has been hampered by the falling price of oil and other commodities due in part to the slowdown in China.

While the African company accounted for 13 percent of Barclays' core profit in the first nine months of 2015, its earnings growth was the slowest among the British lender's main businesses in that period.