Atlas Mara, an investment company focusing on investing in African financial institutions that was formed by the former Barclays executive Robert Diamond Jr., has made its first purchase by acquiring a majority stake in a ABC Holdings, DealBook reported.

Diamond Jr., who was ousted  nearly a year ago amid a rate-fixing scandal, raised $325 million end of last year through Atlas Mara, a venture that will focus on potential acquisitions in the African financial sector. He partnered with Ashish J. Thakkar, an entrepreneur whose Mara Group conglomerate has technology, manufacturing and real estate interests in 19 African countries.

Atlas Mara announced on Monday that it had agreed to take the stake in ABC Holdings, which operates the African bank BancABC, and to acquire its controlling shareholder, ADC African Development Corporation, for about $265 million in cash and shares.

“Our objective is to build Africa’s premier financial services group leveraging the access to capital, liquidity and funding that we at Atlas Mara can provide,” Diamond said in a statement.

Atlas Mara, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in December, has asked the regulator to suspend the trading of its shares until the transaction in completed at the end of August. The deal is also subject to regulatory approval.

BancABC, which dates to 1956, operates in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and has a group-services office in South Africa. The company, based in Botswana, is listed in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The bank posted operating profit of 258 million pula ($29.4 million) in 2013 and had assets worth 15.8 billion pula by the end of the year, DealBook reported