Morocco’s fourth-largest insurance company, Saham Assurance Maroc, recorded MAD 5.621 billion ($592.5 million) in revenues at the end of 2021, a 9.7% year-on-year growth.
Saham’s revenues over the fourth quarter of 2021 reached MAD 1.268 billion ($133.6 million), a 10.3% rise from the MAD 1.150 billion ($133.6 million) recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to a Saham 2021 financial statement.
Saham’s largest shareholder is South Africa’s insurance company Sanlam, with 61.7% stakes. In January 2022, Sanlam announced dropping a bid to increase stakes in Saham by 22.8%.
Sanlam first acquired 30% stakes in the Moroccan insurance provider in 2016, and it increased its stakes in Saham in 2018 through a $1.1 billion deal.
Sanlam Group’s acquisition of stakes in Saham aimed at making the South African group, a pan-African insurance provider.
The South African group plans to take advantage of Saham’s expertise in operating in Africa’s second-largest insurance market, Morocco, and to take advantage of the country’s linguistic and economic ties with West African markets.
Sanlam’s decision to scale back on the Saham acquisition was partly due to the R5.8 billion ($365 million) impairment the company suffered in Morocco as COVID-19 struck, experts have reckoned.
The dropped deal would have marked Sanlam’s biggest acquisition deal, expanding the company’s presence to 33 countries on the African continent.
Amid South Africa’s tight market restrictions, the Saham acquisition presented Sanlam with the possibility of fast growth in Africa.
Saham’s turnover one year prior to the 2018 acquisition was set at $1.2 billion.
Saham alone controls 68 subsidiaries, with a market presence spanning beyond Africa to the Middle East.
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