* Atlas has funding in place for bid - Chairman
* Carlyle among consortium of bidders
* Tough outlook for Africa banking (Adds fresh company comments, context, share price)
By Lawrence White
LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Atlas Mara, theAfrican investment vehicle of former Barclays boss Bob Diamond,has held discussions with investors with a view to making a bidfor Barclays' African business, it said on Tuesday.
Atlas said such an acquisition would help it accelerate itsstrategy to build a major financial firm across sub-SaharanAfrica and that it had already lined up funding for an offer,without elaborating on what form the financing would take.
"The consortium has committed, long-term strategicinvestors, the funding is in place," Diamond said on aconference call.
Atlas Mara's equity at the end of 2015 was $625 million,while Barclays Africa has a market value of $8.47 billion,causing some analysts to question whether they can muster thefinancial fire power to make a serious offer.
"I am very skeptical that they can pull it off quitefrankly," said Zoran Milojevic, a director at Auerbach Grayson,a New York brokerage specialising in emerging and frontiermarkets.
"However, if this were to happen, they would certainly jumpa lot of hurdles, and join the proper playing field in Africanbanking."
Private equity group Carlyle is one member of theconsortium, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters thisweek following media reports of the U.S. fund's interest.
Barclays said this year it would sell down its 62 percentstake in Barclays Africa to focus on other divisions. While itsbusiness is mainly in South Africa, it has operations inBotswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles.
Atlas said there was no certainty a transaction would becompleted but if discussions with investors resulted in moresubstantive negotiations with Barclays, Diamond and co-founderAshish J. Thakkar would recuse themselves from the talks.
Shares in Barclays Africa rose 1.2 percent by 1445 GMT whileshares in Atlas Mara were up 4.9 percent, but remain down 18percent so far this year amid a dim outlook for African banking.
"We share your pain, our money is where our mouth is,"Diamond told investors on Tuesday in reference to his and othersenior executives' investments in Atlas's declining shares.
Founded in 2013, Atlas made four acquisitions in 2014 andnow has operations in Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe,Rwanda, Tanzania and Nigeria.
But some of those countries have felt the brunt of theglobal slump in commodity prices, which has sapped governmentbudgets and caused the likes of Zambia and Mozambique to turn tothe International Monetary Fund for support.
Atlas Mara earlier on Tuesday reported profit before tax of$19.2 million for 2015, compared with a pretax loss of $58million in 2014. (Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Karin Strohecker;editing by Sinead Cruise and David Clarke)
Barclays (BARC)
