A former Barclays boss branded the "unacceptable face of banking" by Labour peer Peter Mandelson is set to make a high-profile return to the City.
Bob Diamond, head of investment banking at the lender during the financial crisis, is bidding to buy Panmure Gordon, one of London's oldest stockbroker.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Diamond took over the whole bank in 2011 but was forced to stand down a year later, under pressure from investors in the wake of the Libor fixed scandal.
Since then, he launched Atlas Mara, an investment firm focused on Africa, and Atlas Merchant Capital, which made its first acquisition in Europe last month, buying out the Athens-based consumer finance arm of France's Credit Agricole, reports The Guardian.
It is through Atlas Merchant that Diamond is returning to the City, making a joint bid with Qatari investment firm QInvest for Panmure Gordon.
Atlas Merchant would take a majority stake after the transaction, while QInvest will maintain its existing 43 per cent interest.
Panmure's board has recommended the offer, which values it at £15.5m. The loss-making business dates back more than 140 years and once counted David Cameron's father Ian among its senior team.
However, it has struggled in recent times, posting a post-tax loss of £4m and statutory loss of more than £16m last year, says the Financial Times. Its shares had tumbled from a high of £23.50 per share in 2006 to just 60p this week. They jumped 66 per cent to close to £1 this morning.
Atlas Mara has seen its share price slump from $12.50 to $2.15 today.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Codeword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Labour shortages: the ‘most urgent problem’ facing the UK economy right nowSpeed Read Britain is currently in the grip of an ‘employment crisis’
-
Will the energy war hurt Europe more than Russia?Speed Read European Commission proposes a total ban on Russian oil
-
Will Elon Musk manage to take over Twitter?Speed Read The world’s richest man has launched a hostile takeover bid worth $43bn
-
Shoppers urged not to buy into dodgy Black Friday dealsSpeed Read Consumer watchdog says better prices can be had on most of the so-called bargain offers
-
Ryanair: readying for departure from LondonSpeed Read Plans to delist Ryanair from the London Stock Exchange could spell ‘another blow’ to the ‘dwindling’ London market
-
Out of fashion: Asos ‘curse’ has struck againSpeed Read Share price tumbles following the departure of CEO Nick Beighton
-
Universal Music’s blockbuster listing: don’t stop me now…Speed Read Investors are betting heavily that the ‘boom in music streaming’, which has transformed Universal’s fortunes, ‘still has a long way to go’
-
EasyJet/Wizz: battle for air supremacySpeed Read ‘Wizz’s cheeky takeover bid will have come as a blow to the corporate ego’
