LONDON (Reuters) - Atlas Mara, the African banking venture of former Barclays boss Bob Diamond, has awarded its Chief Executive John Vitalo shares worth $6 million (3.6 pounds).
Vitalo was poached from Barclays in April to run Atlas Mara, which has struck three deals and wants to become the leading bank in sub-Saharan Africa.
Vitalo, a former U.S. marine who headed Barclays' Middle East and North Africa region and previously built up its African investment bank, was given 300,482 Atlas Mara shares on Thursday, worth $3.2 million at current prices.
The company also awarded Vitalo options for another 300,000 shares, and handed options on another 653,000 shares to other employees and consultants.
Atlas Mara said the shares were subject to certain restrictions on dealing until April 2017. One third of the options vest on the date of grant, one third on the first anniversary and the other third a year after that. Atlas Mara shares closed on Thursday at $10.5.
Vitalo is paid a base salary of about $500,000, can receive an annual cash bonus of up to $1 million and is paid an annual allowance for expenses and benefits of $550,000.
Diamond, who founded Atlas Mara last year with Africa-based billionaire entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar, was frequently slammed by UK politicians and media for the scale of his pay packets at Barclays.
The bank this month paid $270 million to increase its stake in Union Bank of Nigeria to almost 30 percent, its third and biggest deal to date.
(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by David Holmes)