Burkinabe-American banker Simon Tiemtoré is still chasing his first acquisition. Before being a candidate for the takeover of the 3 BNP Paribas subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, the former member of Afreximbank and CEO of the New York fund Lilum Capital, had presented himself in Togo for the acquisition of the Togolese Bank for Trade and Industry (BTCI), on the privatization market for a decade.

A private process had been initiated by Lomé. After many broken promises, the Togolese authorities have closed the Lilium Capital track. Never short of initiatives, Simon Tiemtoré then turned to his country of origin and "candidate" for the takeover of the Commercial Bank of Burkina Faso (BCB*) succeeding in the tour de force of discouraging all competition. Once alone in the running and following the withdrawal of Coris Bank International, the CEO of Vista fails to materialize for lack of funds. The sale of 40% of BCB's capital involved approximately 7 billion CFA francs. As a result, BCB is still looking for a buyer in a process that had to be closed since July 2018.

 
Long before these two failures, Simon Tiemtoré had distinguished himself in Nigeria for the acquisition of FIB Gambia Ltd from the company SLOK Holding whose boss, Orji Kalu, former governor of Abia State, is currently behind bars for an alleged embezzlement of $ 20 million. As part of the takeover of FIB and these five subsidiaries in Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Congo, Lilium is promoting a $300 million credit line with the Russian bank VTB Capital, 92% owned by the Russian state. This transfer agreement obtained from a PEPs institution (politically exposed) is now turning into a dispute for, again, a question of availability of funds.

According to reports, Lilium was to pay $35 million to the Liberian and Congolese subsidiaries upon signature, in accordance with the requirements of the central banks of the two countries concerned. Despite our investigations, we found no trace of any payment. The two subsidiaries (FIBank Liberia and FIBank Congo) were taken over by their central banks. Faced with this incident, the Nigerian side is asking to renegotiate the transfer agreement. Lilium refuses and even manages to have SLOK's shares in FIB transferred on its behalf in the register of The Gambia, the headquarters of the Holding. This suspicious transfer is the subject of several legal actions. The Gambian Supreme Court dismissed Lilium in a judgment of 30 July 2019, confirming SLOk's ownership of the banking group and its subsidiaries.

 
Far from being discouraged following these successive failures, the Quadra has applied brilliantly for the takeover of the 3 subsidiaries of BNP Paribas. If until then, Vista and Lilium have passed all the technical steps of validation of the file and emerged unscathed from the due diligence of the investment bank BNP Paribas, everything suggests that it will be, again, on the question of funds, that the young banker will play his future. His previous links with the Russian bank VTB Capital, his entries with Alpha Condé of Guinea, his proximity to some political pundits in Burkina Faso as well as elsewhere, his American introductions, make him a very influential man. A kind of UFO of finance, a Russian submarine in American colors. It remains not to be confused, influence and cash. It is on this last detail, ringing and stumbling, that any acquisition is negotiated.

Editor's Notes
*Lilium Capital: financial firm based in New York and Mauritius and specialized in supporting investors in frontier markets.

*The Commercial Bank of Burkina Faso (BCB), formerly the Libyan Arab Bank of Burkina Faso (BALIB), was established in April 1988 as part of a partnership between the Burkinabe State and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya represented by the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB). The shareholding is dominated by the Libyan Forein Bank for 50% of the shares and the State of Burkina faso through the FBDES (Burkinabe Fund for Economic and Social Development) and the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) for 25% each.