Robert Diamond’s Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd. (ATMA) said executive management at ABC Holdings Ltd. will depart at the end of this year to make way for a new team led by Simbarashe Ronald Pfende.
Makhosi Boyede and Amelia Reynecke have been appointed as co-chief operating officers and Christine Bronkhorst chief financial officer, London-based Atlas Mara said in a statement today. Doug T. Munatsi, group chief executive officer, Beki Moyo, group chief financial officer and Francis M. Dzanya, group COO, will step down at the end of the year from their roles at BancABC, as ABC Holdings is known, it said.
Atlas Mara agreed to buy Gaborone, Botswana-based BancABC, for as much as $265 million in April in the company’s first African acquisition. Founded in 1956, the bank offers financial services in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Pfende most recently worked for Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s biggest lender, where his roles included being CFO for its Nigerian and Ugandan operations.
Howard Buttery has stepped down from his role as chairman of the board of directors of BancABC and will leave the board at year-end, as will fellow director, Ngoni Kudenga, Atlas Mara said. John Vitalo, CEO of Atlas Mara, has been appointed as interim chairman, subject to regulatory approval, and Bradford Gibbs, a member of the Atlas Mara executive committee, has also joined the board of BancABC.
Due to the management team’s departure, BancABC will incur a one-time net charge to income of about $5.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Atlas Mara.
Diamond, who quit as Barclays Plc CEO in July 2012 after the London-based bank was fined for manipulating benchmark interest rates, and Ugandan entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar raised $325 million in an initial public offering for Atlas Mara in December 2013. The investment firm is buying African financial-services companies to benefit from the continent’s growth.
Bloomberg
