EX-BARCLAYS BOSS DIAMOND SAYS READY TO GRAB BANKING BARGAINS

Bob Diamond

Nov 26 (Reuters) - Former Barclays Plc boss Bob Diamond said he intends to snap up banking assets to take advantage of the best opportunities in the industry for decades, as banks shrink and valuations remain depressed.

Diamond is one of the world's best-known bankers after building Barclays' investment bank over a decade and becoming chief executive. He was forced out in 2012 by UK regulators after the lender was fined for attempted rigging of Libor interest rates.

"There are opportunities in financial services that there haven't been for 20 or 30 years, so I'm far from pessimistic," Diamond said at his first public speech in Britain since being ousted from Barclays.

"Valuations are down so they are enticing, there's a massive amount of supply of businesses that are available, and yet the strategic investors of the last 20 or 30 years have been the big global banks and they are off the stage, in fact they are sellers," he said at the FT Banking Summit.

Diamond set up Atlas Merchant Capital in New York last year with former JC Flowers director David Schamis to invest in or advise banks and other financial firms.

He has also co-founded Atlas Mara, which is listed in London and wants to become sub-Saharan Africa's leading bank.

"It's a very ambitious plan, so we've said it is a five to seven year plan," Diamond told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

Atlas Mara has made three investments, including a 30 percent stake in Union Bank of Nigeria and operations in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and elsewhere, and Diamond said it was likely to buy "two or three" businesses a year as part of its expansion.

He said the business should be able to deliver returns on equity of between 15 and 20 percent or even higher over time.

Atlas Merchant Capital, which has not made any publicly released deals, plans to look more widely than Africa, including at assets being sold by European banks who are shrinking to improve their capital ratios and become less risky.

"We're perfectly placed to be acquirers of these types of institutions and decide in some cases maybe it's a good standalone business, in other cases maybe it should be combined with another institution, in another case maybe restructured. And in some cases maybe bring in new management," Diamond said.