Bob Diamond recovers his shine as Atlas Mara makes maiden profit

The ousted former boss of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has taken another step in repairing his damaged corporate reputation as his company, Atlas Mara, made a maiden profit.

The London-listed financial-services firm swung into profit for the first time since it was set up two years ago, making $4.1 million (£2.6 million) in the first half of the year.

The company, which is focused on sub-Saharan Africa, was co-founded by the former Barclays head and entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar.

Atlas was boosted by a deal with the Tanzanian postal agency to set up agency banking in all of their post offices across the country, which would potentially increase its BancABC Tanzania arm’s footprint from four branches to 199 outlets.

As well as Atlas Mara, the former Barclays boss, ousted in 2012 after the Libor scandal, has also set up a private-equity firm to invest in the US and European financial-services industries.

Through this fund he made a surprise return to Wall Street earlier this month, buying a stake in South Street Securities, a New York trading firm specialising in the repo market.