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Join on Telegram Rabat – Morocco’s Competition Council this week approved Saham Finances’s acquisition of a 57% stake and voting rights in Societe Generale Marocaine de Banques.
During a board meeting chaired by the Council’s President Ahmed Rahhou, the council also approved Saham Horizon’s acquisition of a 50.98% stake in insurance provider La Marocaine Vie.
Valued at over MAD 8 billion ($800 million), the deal will mark Societe Generale France’s exit from the Moroccan banking sector.
Societe Generale France has been actively divesting its assets in Africa since 2023. Under its new CEO Slawomir Krupa, the company has been shedding “unprofitable” subsidiaries across Africa.
In June 2023, the French banking group announced its withdrawal from several African countries by selling subsidiaries, namely in Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, and Chad.
The company, however, retained its operations in 13 other countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Senegal.
In December 2023, subsidiaries in Congo and Chad were sold. In April 2024, the bank sold its banking and insurance assets in Morocco to the Saham group for €745 million.
As of May 2024, Societe Generale is still looking to sell its subsidiaries in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Mauritania, Tunisia, and possibly Algeria.
In April 2024, Société Générale announced the sale of its subsidiary Societe Generale Equipment Finance (SGEF), dedicated to industrial equipment leasing, to BPCE for €1.1 billion.
In a report published in April of this year, American rating firm Fitch said that the French company’s exit from Africa is offering emerging pan-African banking groups “significant space to grow, either organically or through mergers and acquisitions.”
According to Fitch, the mass exodus of French banks “should stimulate competition and benefit local banking sectors despite some short-term challenges.”
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