Barclays Africa Said to Be Front-Runner to Buy Mozambican Bank

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Barclays Africa Group Ltd., the South African bank with operations across 12 countries on the continent, is the lead bidder for Mozambique’s Moza Banco SA, according to people familiar with the matter.

The central bank has received three proposals, which will be reviewed by an independent panel before the winner is announced in July, one of the people said, asking not to be named because the process is private. Barclays Africa’s existing operations in Mozambique are too small to give it a dominant position, so the acquisition will help it expand quickly, two other people said.

The country’s central bank took over Moza Banco in September after administrative costs soared and the lender’s solvency ratio dropped to zero. The regulator said in October it would stabilize the business and prepare it for sale. Since then, two state-owned companies failed to make payments on loans, inflation rose to almost 22 percent and debt costs soared amid a freeze on aid.

Moza Banco’s investors couldn’t inject as much as $120 million in capital to save the lender, Zitamar News reported in February, citing a letter by Prakash Ratilal, the chairman of Mocambique Capitais, the lender’s majority shareholder.

Lisbon-based Novo Banco SA, which owns the remaining 49 percent of the bank, wasn’t immediately able to comment. Ratilal didn’t immediately respond to messages left at his Maputo office seeking comment. Barclays Africa, which has less than half a million customers in Mozambique, declined to comment.

Atlas Mara Ltd., the African financial services company co-founded by the former head of Barclays Plc Bob Diamond, considered buying Moza Banco and then “stepped away,” Ashish Thakkar, Diamond’s fellow co-founder of Atlas Mara, said in an interview in Durban, South Africa last week, without giving more details.