Moroccan bank in biggest Mali privatisation

BAMAKO, July 28 (Reuters) - Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank (ATW.CS) is paying more than $90 million for a majority stake in Banque Internationale pour le Mali (BIM) in Mali's biggest privatisation deal, the head of the Malian bank said on Monday.

"It is confirmed that following an international tender, Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank is the provisional buyer of 51 percent of BIM S.A.," Mamadou Igor Diarra, BIM chairman and chief executive, told Reuters in Mali's capital Bamako.

It is paying 39.3 billion CFA francs ($93.46 million).

BIM has carved a niche for itself in the money transfer business, notably handling funds sent home by the many Malians living abroad in places like France in conjunction with Western Union (WU.N).

With turnover of 178 billion CFA francs, BIM is Mali's second biggest commercial bank after the Banque de Developpement du Mali (BDM), Diarra said.

Attijariwafa Bank saw off rival bids of 27 billion CFA francs from Nigerian bank UBA (UBA.LG) and 17.4 billion CFA francs from West African regional operator Ecobank, according to local media reports quoting members of Mali's Privatisation Committee.

Attijariwafa and Moroccan rival BMCE (BMCE.CS) have taken advantage of strong profit growth at home to expand into new markets in Africa by acquiring local operations or applying for local banking licences and building from scratch.

Attijariwafa has expanded its operations in French-speaking West Africa in the past couple of years.

Last November it agreed to buy a controlling stake in Compagnie Bancaire de l'Afrique Occidentale (CBAO) in Mali's western neighbour Senegal, making Attijariwafa the biggest bank in West Africa's franc zone. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com) (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; additional reporting by Tom Pfeiffer in Rabat; writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Paul Bolding)