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(Correct figure in 3rd paragraph to $20 million from $20billion)
* Atlas Mara is targeting an acquisition in Africa
* Diamond partners 32-year-old entrepreneur Thakkar
* Sees opportunities as European lenders retreat
* Proceeds from IPO include $20 mln investment by founders
By Matt Scuffham
LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Atlas Mara, a newinvestment company backed by the former boss of Barclays Bob Diamond, said it had raised $325 million by listingon the London Stock Exchange and planned to build a newfinancial services business in Africa.
Diamond embarked upon the venture after he was ousted fromBarclays last year when the bank was fined $450 million foralleged manipulation of the Libor interbank lending rate.
He and African-focused entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar haveinvested a combined $20 million in Atlas Mara and said in aprospectus published on Tuesday they saw significant gaps withinthe African financial services sector, partly because Europeanlenders quit the region after the financial crisis to focusinstead on building capital to meet tougher regulations.
That presented an opportunity, they said, to make anacquisition that could be developed into a financial institution"to support economic growth and strengthen financial systems inAfrica".
The scope for growth in Africa is significant. Barely aquarter of sub-Saharan Africans have a bank account, yeteconomic growth in the region is set to outpace the globalaverage over the next three years, according to World Bankfigures.
British banks Barclays and Standard Chartered haveboth said they expect strong growth from their Africanoperations in the coming years.
Arnold Ekpe, former chief executive of pan-African lenderEcobank Transnational, will chair the Atlas Mara boardwhich will include Diamond and Thakkar alongside Tonye Cole,co-founder of Sahara Group, and Rachel Robbins, lead lawyer forthe World Bank's International Finance Corporation.
Diamond left Barclays in July 2012. It was the first bankfined for its involvement in Libor rate-rigging, but since thenSwitzerland's UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland andDutch lender Rabobank have received bigger fines.
Diamond was praised for building up Barclays' investmentbank into a global power over more than a decade before takingover as chief executive in 2011. However, evidence of a strainedrelationship with regulators emerged following his departurewith former Bank of England governor Mervyn King tellinglawmakers the bank had been "sailing too close to the windacross a wide number of areas".
Since leaving Barclays, Diamond has kept a relatively lowprofile, but he has made no secret of his plans to invest inAfrica, where his charity - the Diamond Family Foundation -supports a range of projects.
Conditional dealings in Atlas Mara shares began on Tuesday.Citigroup acted as advisor on the IPO. (Editing by Sophie Walker)
