Last checked at 
LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Atlas Mara, the African bankingventure of former Barclays boss Bob Diamond, hasawarded its Chief Executive John Vitalo shares worth $6 million.
Vitalo was poached from Barclays in April to run Atlas Mara,which has struck three deals and wants to become the leadingbank in sub-Saharan Africa.
Vitalo, a former U.S. marine who headed Barclays' MiddleEast and North Africa region and previously built up its Africaninvestment bank, was given 300,482 Atlas Mara shares onThursday, worth $3.2 million at current prices.
The company also awarded Vitalo options for another 300,000shares, and handed options on another 653,000 shares to otheremployees and consultants.
Atlas Mara said the shares were subject to certainrestrictions on dealing until April 2017. One third of theoptions vest on the date of grant, one third on the firstanniversary and the other third a year after that. Atlas Marashares closed on Thursday at $10.5.
Vitalo is paid a base salary of about $500,000, can receivean annual cash bonus of up to $1 million and is paid an annualallowance for expenses and benefits of $550,000.
Diamond, who founded Atlas Mara last year with Africa-basedbillionaire entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar, was frequently slammedby UK politicians and media for the scale of his pay packets atBarclays.
The bank this month paid $270 million to increase its stakein Union Bank of Nigeria to almost 30 percent, itsthird and biggest deal to date. (Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by David Holmes)
