LONDON-- Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays
PLC, has poached a senior executive at the lender to be CEO of his
African banking venture.
Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd., an investment vehicle that Mr. Diamond
co-founded late last year to buy up African banking assets, said
Tuesday it had appointed John Vitalo as chief executive. Mr. Vitalo
has held a number of senior managerial positions at Barclays, and
most recently served as CEO of Middle East and North Africa, a
position he has held since May 2009.
At Atlas Mara, Mr. Vitalo will be responsible for directing and
executing the company's strategy to become Africa's leading
financial services group by providing capital, liquidity and
funding to the banking industry in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr. Vitalo is also a former CEO of Absa Capital, the Pan-African
investment bank.
Atlas also confirmed Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of
understanding with the Government of Rwanda to pursue the
privatization of BRD, the commercial arm of the Development Bank of
Rwanda.
The deal comes just a week after Atlas Mara agreed to buy
sub-Saharan African bank ABC Holdings Ltd. and ADC African
Development Corporation AG for up to $265 million.
Mr. Diamond formed Atlas Mara in partnership with Ashish Thakkar
and floated it on the London Stock Exchange in December raising
$325 million. Its shares are currently suspended.
Mr. Diamond resigned as chief executive of Barclays in July 2012
after the bank paid U.S. and U.K. regulators $455 million to settle
allegations that it had manipulated Libor, the London interbank
offered rate.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
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