LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - Atlas Mara, theAfrican bank co-founded by former Barclays boss Bob Diamond, isconsidering more acquisitions and may raise cash to pay for themas it reported a loss for its first full year.
Atlas Mara said the deals could range in scale "frommulti-national operations to smaller 'bolt-on' acquisitions" andit may seek external financing this year to help. It has raised$625 million in two fundraisings.
It aims to improve corporate governance, credit quality andoperating efficiency at the businesses it already owns, theLondon-listed company said on Wednesday.
"Although forecasting is challenging in the currentenvironment, we expect to demonstrate marked improvements inorganic growth and profitability," said Chief Executive JohnVitalo.
Atlas Mara was co-founded by Diamond and Africa-basedentrepreneur Ashish Thakkar in 2013 and wants to becomesub-Saharan Africa's leading bank. After a series of deals ithas operations or interests across seven countries, includingBotswana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Diamond is one of the world's best-known bankers afterbuilding Barclays' investment bank over a decade andbecoming CEO. He was forced out in 2012 by UK regulators afterthe lender was fined for attempted rigging of Libor interestrates.
Atlas Mara said it made a loss of $63.1 million for the 13months to the end of 2014 after takeover costs and provisions. Difficult economic and liquidity conditions in some countriesand a strong U.S. dollar also hurt, it said.
Stripping out transaction and integration costs it wouldhave made an underlying net profit of $7.2 million.
It said it expects to make a net profit this year and in themedium term should deliver a return on equity of about 20percent, which is well above what almost all other banks aretargeting. (Reporting by Steve Slater, editing by Louise Heavens)
Barclays (BARC)
