Kuben Naidoo, Deputy Governor of South Africa’ s central bank said that as a regulator the institution “would not be comfortable” with seeing Barclays Africa be acquired by short and midterm investors. “We would not be comfortable with private equity play for any of the banks as it often implies leverage effects and exit strategies, when banks need long-term shareholders, with enough financial room,” Mr. Naidoo told journalists.

Meanwhile, Barclays’ former Chief Executive and co-founder of Atlas Mara, Bob Diamond, confirmed that he was teaming up with some investors, including Carlyle Group, to take advantage of Barclays’ decision to sell down its 62.3% stake in Barclays Africa, to de-consolidation level.

Not waiting for both parties to come to an understanding, Barclays Plc announced it is selling 12.2% (103.6 million shares) of its stake in its African business, as a private placement. Bought for R126 each, shares were sold with an 11% discount to the average price over the past 30 days, even with group pocketing $879 million.

Among those purchasing stakes in this transaction which is to be valorized today, May 5, 2016, is Public Investment Corporation. The institution which presently manages about $123 billion worth of assets belonging to South African pensioners, and also Barclays Africa’s second shareholder, said at the end of March it was interested in increasing its stake in the firm.

On May 4, the Barclays Africa share closed at -4.7% in Johannesburg where the firm is listed. However, this morning, May 5, it went back up to +1.06%.

Idriss Linge