Billionaire Anas Sefrioui to acquire Servier's Moroccan business

Anas Sefrioui is buying the Moroccan business of Servier, France's second-largest pharmaceutical group, after outbidding Moncef Belkhayat in an auction that ran through most of this year.

Pharma Capital SA, the Sefrioui Group company that made the winning offer, will take the entire share capital and voting rights of Servier Maroc SA and Servier Maroc Investissements SAS, according to the notification filed with Morocco's Competition Council. The regulator published the summary on July 23 and gave interested third parties until Aug. 3 to submit observations. It has not yet ruled.

Neither party has disclosed the price.

The two targets separate the operating business from the property. Servier Maroc manufactures, distributes and sells pharmaceutical products, concentrated in cardio-metabolism, venous diseases and oncology, and is registered at Immeuble Zevaco on boulevard Abdelhadi Boutaleb in Casablanca. Servier Maroc Investissements, registered on boulevard Zerktouni, holds and manages commercial and industrial real estate.

Pharma Capital is registered at 29 rue de Lille in the Roches Noires district of Casablanca and invests in pharmaceuticals and healthcare more broadly.

The French group has been in Morocco since 1996 and expanded its plant at Nouaceur in 2017. That facility employs around 150 people, and the subsidiary generates annual revenue in the region of 360 million dirhams, with a substantial share of output exported to West Africa and France.

Servier engaged the Australian investment bank Macquarie to run the sale.

Seven candidates entered the first round, according to Le Desk. Indian bidders were eliminated, as were two Moroccan groups widely tipped at the outset: Laprophan, controlled by Farid Bennis, and Bottu, run by Azzedine Berrada. A consortium formed in equal parts by Atlas Capital, RIM Pharma and Afric Invest finished fourth and withdrew at the end of the process. Three candidates remained by May, with Belkhayat reported to be leading at that stage.

The purchase extends a consolidation Pharma Capital began two years ago. The Competition Council cleared its acquisition of exclusive control over Afric-Phar, Pharmis and Partner Lab, leaving it with 95.35 percent of Afric-Phar, 55 percent of Pharmis and a position in Partner Lab. Afric-Phar and Pharmis both operate from the Aïn Sebaâ district of Casablanca in production and distribution, while Partner Lab works in research and development. Afric-Phar reported EBITDA of 150 million dirhams in 2023 against annual revenue tracking toward 700 million, and Pharmis records annual sales of about 100 million dirhams. That transaction was reported at around 1.9 billion dirhams.

Adding Servier gives the group manufacturing, distribution, research and now an international product portfolio, alongside the property that houses it.

Sefrioui built his fortune in property rather than medicine. He founded Douja Promotion Groupe Addoha, which became Morocco's largest listed residential developer, and has spent recent years moving capital into healthcare.

Morocco produces enough medicine domestically to cover about 65 percent of national demand and ranks second on the continent by volume, with the World Health Organization classifying it in the European zone. Several multinationals manufacture there, treating the country as a route into African markets, and the sector has drawn increasing interest from Moroccan family groups buying assets those multinationals no longer want to run directly.

The Competition Council must approve the transaction before it completes.