A consortium backed by former Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) chief Bob Diamond could buy the British bank’s African arm.
Diamond’s Atlas Merchant Capital (AMC) has reportedly teamed up with US private equity firm Carlyle Group to draw up a bid for Barclays Africa.
If the bid succeeds, the consortium could merge Barclays Africa with AMC-backed African banking group Atlas Mara, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.
AMC and Ashish Thakkar’s Mara Group co-founded Atlas Mara in 2013.
It has assets in countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia but has struggled to expand amid the downturn in emerging markets.
Atlas Mara confirmed in a statement that it has had talks with a consortium including AMC and the Mara Group.
"Atlas Mara's board of directors supports the exploration of the potential combination, given the expected positive impact on accelerating the company's strategy to build sub-Saharan Africa's premier financial institution," it said, adding that there was no certainty of a deal.
Barclays said at the start of March that it was planning to sell down its 62.3% stake in Barclays Africa over the next two to three years.
The bank said its African operation, which reported a 17% return on equity for 2015 on a local currency basis , was a "well-diversified business and high-quality franchise".
But it said owning the stake presented significant challenges, such as the level of capital held in Barclays Africa and the international reach of the UK banking levy.
Diamond helped to drive Barclays’s move into Africa in the last decade, but quit in 2012 following the Libor inter-bank rate rigging scandal.