Moroccan billionaire Moulay Hafid Elalamy sells La Marocaine Vie

Moroccan billionaire Moulay Hafid Elalamy is reshaping his investment portfolio after agreeing to sell almost all of La Marocaine Vie to Wafa Assurance, transferring control of one of Morocco's established life insurers to a rival financial group.

Wafa Assurance has agreed to acquire 99.98% of La Marocaine Vie from Saham Group, the investment company founded by Elalamy. The agreement, announced on November 12, gives Morocco's largest insurer a near-total stake in a business that generated MAD2.5 billion ($275 million) in gross premiums in 2025.

The purchase price has not been disclosed. The transaction remains subject to approval from Morocco's Insurance and Social Security Supervisory Authority and other regulatory conditions, including notification to the country's Competition Council.

The proposed sale marks an important development for Elalamy's Saham Group, which acquired Société Générale's Moroccan banking operations and La Marocaine Vie in 2024 for €700 million. The insurance business was subsequently retained within the group's financial-services portfolio as Saham expanded its presence in banking and investment management.

The latest transaction will bring La Marocaine Vie under Wafa Assurance, which operates within Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank and Al Mada business network. Al Mada is the reference shareholder in Attijariwafa Bank, giving the proposed acquisition an important connection to one of the country's most influential investment groups.

Wafa Assurance said the acquisition would strengthen its position in life insurance, savings and protection products. The company reported consolidated gross premiums of MAD15.23 billion ($1.7 billion) in 2025, including MAD8.36 billion from its life-insurance business.

The deal also includes a long-term bancassurance partnership between Wafa Assurance and Saham Bank. Under the arrangement, Saham Bank will continue distributing insurance products through its branches, allowing it to maintain access to insurance services without retaining ownership of the underwriting business.

La Marocaine Vie's policyholders are not expected to experience immediate changes. The companies said existing contracts, guarantees and conditions would remain in place, with the insurer continuing to operate separately until the necessary regulatory approvals are secured.

The transaction is particularly significant given Elalamy's history in the insurance industry. He founded Saham Group in 1995 and built it into one of Africa's major insurance and financial-services businesses. In 2018, he sold the group's insurance operations to South Africa's Sanlam in a transaction valued at more than $1 billion.

He subsequently expanded into banking, healthcare, technology and international investments. His return to Morocco's financial sector accelerated with the 2024 acquisition of Société Générale's Moroccan operations, which were later rebranded as Saham Bank.

As previously reported in Billionaires.Africa's profile of Elalamy's business empire, insurance remains central to the businessman's rise and his wider investment strategy.

Elalamy, who served as Morocco's minister of industry, trade and investment from 2013 to 2021, also chairs the supervisory board of Saham Bank and leads the group's international investment activities.

For Wafa Assurance, the proposed acquisition offers an opportunity to consolidate its position in Morocco's life-insurance market. For Elalamy, it represents another restructuring of a financial-services portfolio he has spent decades building, while maintaining a distribution partnership that keeps Saham Bank connected to the insurance business.