Ugandan billionaire eyes Barclays assets

Ugandan billionaire businessman Ashish J. Thakkar, together with former Barclays boss Bob Diamond, through Atlas Mara, a finance company they co-own, are mulling a bid for the troubled British bank's African operations, reports the Mail & Guardian Africa.

This follows Barclays announcement last month that it would sell down its 62.3% interest in Barclays Africa to 20% over the next two to three years.

Atlas Mara revealed in a statement that it has held talks with investors over the possible acquisition.

"Atlas Mara Limited acknowledges that it has had discussions with a consortium of investors that is exploring an acquisition of Barclays' stake in Barclays Africa and a potential combination of Atlas Mara with Barclays Africa," read the statement.

The consortium includes private equity vehicle Atlas Merchant Capital, which was established by Diamond, and the Mara Group that was founded by Ugandan billionaire businessman Ashish J. Thakkar.

Diamond and Thakkar formed Atlas Mara in 2013 with the aim of consolidating financial services companies in Africa.

The company has so far made acquisitions in seven sub-Saharan countries from Botswana to Nigeria, with plans to expand that to 10 to 15 markets over the next few years.

Diamond was forced to resign as Barclays chief executive in July 2012 when the bank was plagued by the damaging Libor rate-fixing scandal.

Who is Ashish J. Thakkar?

According to Forbes Magazine, Ashish J. Thakkar is only 34, but in less than two decades, the Ugandan-born maverick entrepreneur has accomplished what only few attain in their lifetime. 

Thakkar began his entrepreneurial journey over 15 years ago as a high school student in Uganda where he sold computers to his schoolmates and friends.

That small trading operation snowballed into the Mara Group, a diversified conglomerate with approximately $100 million in revenues, according to Thakkar.

 Mara has tentacles in everything from Real Estate and tourism to financial services, information and communications technology, renewable energy and manufacturing.

The group's operations span 16 countries in four continents, including Asia. And lest you forget, he didn't inherit anything; he built it all from scratch.

He is also an astronaut-in-waiting. Thakkar is the only African who shelled out the $200,000 ticket fee for Virgin Galactic's first flight to Space. When the trip eventually comes through, he'll be the second African astronaut after South African software millionaire Mark Shuttleworth.

My family and I moved to Kampala when I was just fourteen, having been made refugees after the Rwandan genocide two years after moving to Rwanda from the UK. It was when I started school in Kampala that I started selling computers to friends and to the school. That was really when the seed was sown, or perhaps when it came to fruition! After some intense convincing, my parents agreed to let me start my own business on the condition that I would go back to school if it didn't work out. The rest, as they say, is history.

We started in IT, then diversified into packaging and property development, and through the years have ventured into infrastructure, asset management and now agriculture. Mara Foundation, our non-profit arm, focuses on entrepreneurship and education. The group places equal emphasis on internal growth and structure and on strategic partnerships with global experts in various fields.

Some of Thakkar's businesses

Banking

Atlas Mara Limited is a rapidly growing sub-Saharan African financial services group listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Since its founding by Bob Diamond and Ashish J. Thakkar in 2013, it has acquired, by way of four transactions, control of (or significant stakes in) banking operations in seven sub-Saharan African countries, including Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda and Nigeria, several of which rank amongst the fastest growing countries in the world.

Real Estate

Mara Delta Property Holdings is the first Pan-African focused real estate fund, listed on both the JSE and SEM.  MDPH will invest in real estate assets across the African continent.

Technology

Mara's technology ventures will capitalise on the rapidly growing smartphone and internet penetration figures in emerging markets creating a suite of platforms that are tailored locally.