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There is a pattern to how Moulay Hafid Elalamy operates. He builds something large, then builds something larger from the proceeds. He spent the better part of three decades turning a small Moroccan insurance startup into a pan-African financial powerhouse, sold it for close to $2 billion, and used the momentum to go further.
Now he is doing it again, this time inside one of Paris's biggest listed companies.
Saham Group, the Casablanca-based investment firm he chairs, announced March 2 that it has entered a total return equity swap agreement with a major financial institution for up to €355 million ($412.2 million), referencing the ordinary shares of Teleperformance SE. The agreement is expected to mature on Sept. 2, 2026, or earlier if the maximum notional amount is reached, subject to prevailing market conditions. Saham Group has no intention of acquiring a controlling stake in TP.
The transaction is, at its core, a bet on a company Saham already knows well. Saham's current position in Teleperformance stems from the November 2023 merger between Majorel and Teleperformance, in which Saham had been a major shareholder through a joint venture with Bertelsmann. When Teleperformance acquired Majorel for about €3 billion ($3.48 billion), Saham chose to receive a significant part of the payment in shares rather than cash, making it a reference shareholder in the French group.
Saham and Bertelsmann each entered that arrangement with roughly 4 percent of Teleperformance's share capital.
The company they hold a stake in is not a small one. Teleperformance employs more than 500,000 people in nearly 100 countries and posted revenues of €10.2 billion ($11.84 billion) and net profit of €781 million ($906.9 million) in 2025.
Elalamy has been accumulating influence at the company steadily. In August 2024, he became chairman of Teleperformance's board, making him the first Moroccan to lead a company listed on the CAC 40. That same year, he joined the executive board of the International Chamber of Commerce, another first for a Moroccan national.
His return to business after years in government has been aggressive by any measure. From 2013 to 2021, he served as Morocco's Minister of Industry, Trade, Digital Transformation and Green Economy, the longest-serving official in that role since 1955, a period in which 50 industrial ecosystems and 650,000 new jobs were created. He came back to the private sector and moved fast. He led the acquisition of Société Générale's Moroccan banking operations for €745 million ($865.1 million), creating Saham Bank.
The equity swap lands at a moment of genuine transition inside Teleperformance itself. The company, which now trades as TP on Euronext Paris, is pushing hard into AI-driven services and recently announced a new group CEO with a background in artificial intelligence-native customer operations, with outgoing leadership stepping down March 15. Saham is deepening its exposure to a company that is actively reinventing itself.
People familiar with the group say that none of this changes Saham's center of gravity. Strategic calls are still made in Casablanca. The ambition is global; the identity is not. Saham describes itself as following a long-term investment approach focused on sustainable value creation and disciplined governance standards, with a diversified portfolio spanning financial services, customer experience, real estate, education and agriculture.
Elalamy founded the group in 1995 with a single insurance firm. What he has constructed since, deal by deal, is a case study in how African business capital can accumulate enough weight to influence boardrooms that once barely noticed the continent. The €355 million ($412.2 million) equity swap is the latest evidence that the accumulation is not finished.
