Rabat – Saham, one of Morocco’s leading insurance providers, has officially changed its name to that of its majority stakeholder company Sanlam, a South African insurance provider.
The decision to change the group’s name was made during a board meeting held on 28 December 28, 2021, according to converging news reports.
Sanlam’s stakes in Saham reached 61.7% in 2018 through a $1.05 billion deal. The company had plans to boost its shares of the Moroccan insurance provider to 84.5% in 2022. But the deal did not go through due to unmet conditions.
Commenting on the news of the name change, Sanlam’s General Manager in Morocco, Yahia Chraibi, said that the measure would allow the company to “deploy in Morocco a unified brand on a continental scale, backed by the recognition of our partners and customers as well as the capital of trust built up over more than a century.”
Rebranding Saham “is also a question of taking advantage of the Group’s synergies as well as the coherence of Sanlam’s discourse and communication,” he added.
In addition to changing the name, the company changed its motto to “live with confidence.”
To announce the new measure, “the group is rolling out a large-scale communication campaign on the national media, on social networks, and on billboards,” the insurance provider explained in its press release. “The creative concept is based on an original and modern choreography that goes around all Moroccan regions.” Saham insurance is the fourth largest insurance provider in Morocco, Africa’s second-largest insurance market after South Africa.
The Moroccan insurer recorded a turnover of $821.8 million in 2021, marking a year-on-year increase of 11%.
After acquiring stakes in Saham in 2018, Sanlam is now present in 33 African countries.
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