BOB Diamond’s co-founded Atlas Mara has obtained all the approval necessary for its share-for-share swap with African Development Corporation (ADC), the 38% shareholder in BancABC.
NDAMU SANDU CHIEF BUSINESS REPORTER
BancABC is a pan-African banking group with operations in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Tanzania.
The granting of approvals follows Atlas Mara’s announcement in March of its intention to acquire a majority stake in ADC.
Atlas Mara also announced that it would buy 50,1% shareholding in BancABC parent company, ABC Holdings.
In a notice yesterday, Atlas Mara — co-founded by Diamond and billionaire Ashish J Thakkar — said completion conditions were satisfied for the voluntary public offer of Atlas Mara for ADC.
Early this month, Atlas Mara said over 95% of ADC shareholders had tendered their shares for the swap.
“Further to the 95% acceptance rate of the voluntary public offer to the shareholders of ADC African Development Corporation AG (“ADC”) for which the acceptance period expired on 31 July 2014 (the “Offer”), Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Limited (“Atlas Mara” or the “Company”) announces that the completion conditions necessary to settle the offer have been satisfied.
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“Settlement will take place in accordance with the terms and conditions of the offer document,” it said yesterday.
Atlas Mara said it had obtained the consent of the Central Bank of Botswana, Central Bank of Mozambique, Central Bank of Tanzania and notification to the Central Bank of Zambia had been fulfilled as at August 15.
Early this month, BancABC’s parent said the process of obtaining regulatory approval to sell a controlling shareholding to Atlas Mara was progressing well. Atlas Mara sees its strategy in sub-Saharan Africa’s financial services sector as a “positive disruptive force” buoyed by a strong capital position and acquisitions.
In an interim management report and statement, Atlas Mara board chairman Arnold Ekpe said he was excited by the company’s prospects in the outlook.
“I believe firmly in the company’s strategy of being a ‘positive disruptive force’ in sub-Saharan African financial services and I’m excited by the company’s prospects,” Ekpe said.
“I remain confident in the outlook for the company, given its strong capital position, the solid platform being established as a result of the pending acquisitions, the high quality management team that we have been able to attract, and an exciting pipeline of potential additional acquisition opportunities that has been identified.”
As at June 30 2014, the Atlas Mara held $306 million of cash and cash equivalent investments of which $286 million was invested in US Treasuries, mutual funds holding US Treasuries rated at least AA or better at the time of purchase or deposit, or such money market funds as approved by the board of directors.
