How Moroccan billionaire Moulay Elalamy took 92.3% control of Sweden's Arktika bank

When Moulay Hafid Elalamy acquired a stake in Arktika Capital AB, the Swedish licensed credit institution, it was described as a majority stake. The full picture, as reported by Le Desk on Monday, is considerably more concentrated than that initial description suggested.

Elalamy has structured 92.3 percent control of Arktika Capital through a chain of Saham Group vehicles, according to Le Desk's detailed breakdown of the ownership architecture. The structure places his son, Moulay Mhamed Elalamy, as CEO of the Swedish bank, embedding direct family operational control inside the institution alongside the holding company ownership above it.

Moulay Mhamed Elalamy is the operational face of Saham Group in its post-insurance phase, having led the group's strategic development since 2018 through the growth and listing of Majorel, its subsequent merger with Teleperformance, and the acquisition of Société Générale Maroc, now operating as Saham Bank. His appointment as CEO of Arktika Capital extends that pattern of direct family management into the group's newest European asset.

Arktika Capital AB is a Category 4 bank under Swedish financial regulator Finansinspektionen, operating in two complementary business lines. Its primary activity is acquiring and managing non-performing loan portfolios from European banks at a discount and recovering value over time. Its secondary activity is offering Swedish retail depositors fixed-term savings accounts through its Arktika Spar product, with interest rates between 2.00 and 2.25 percent across terms from three to 48 months. All deposits are covered by the Swedish state deposit guarantee scheme.

The 92.3 percent control figure, structured through Saham's holding vehicles, gives Elalamy effective full operational and strategic authority over the institution. The remaining minority is held by co-investors or legacy shareholders whose identities Le Desk did not specify in detail.

The acquisition gives Saham Group a regulated European credit institution at a moment when the non-performing loan market across Europe is expanding. Rising interest rates between 2022 and 2025 pushed delinquency rates higher across several European markets, increasing the supply of distressed portfolios available for purchase at a discount. Stage 2 loan volumes, credit exposures not yet classified as non-performing but showing early signs of stress, are also moving toward transaction as European banks proactively manage their balance sheets ahead of regulatory review cycles.

Elalamy's broader investment strategy has been taking shape since the 2018 sale of Saham's African insurance operations to Sanlam. The TP stake, now at 14.87 percent, is his most visible public market bet. Arktika Capital is his most direct ownership of a regulated banking institution outside Morocco. Together, the two positions sketch a strategy of building institutional financial services exposure across Europe at a time when African financial entrepreneurs with genuine capital are finding the continent's regulatory frameworks more accessible than they were a decade ago.