In September 2026, a new company called SH REI Spain SL was registered in Spain with €10,000 of capital and a single shareholder: Saham Investments Ltd, a Dubai-based company of Morocco’s Saham Group, according to Billionaires.Africa. Its stated purpose is to take stakes in companies, with no sector named. It is a newly created company, not an acquisition.
The filing is small, but the pattern behind it is not. Saham, founded in 1995 by Moulay Hafid Elalamy, has sold two big operating businesses since 2018 and now behaves more like an investor: a top holding company abroad, and a small local company in each country where it puts money. This is how a family office often grows out of the proceeds of a sale.
What Saham filed in Spain
A sociedad limitada (SL) is Spain’s standard private limited company. According to Morocco World News, citing BORME, the official gazette of Spain’s companies register, SH REI Spain SL was incorporated on 11 September. Billionaires.Africa, citing the Spanish site Vanitatis, adds a registered office in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, just outside Madrid, and PwC as adviser on the set-up.
Rim Bensouda Mourri, Saham’s director of asset management, is president and chief executive. Moulay Mhamed Elalamy, 36, the founder’s eldest son and Saham’s chief executive since 2018, is a director; BORME recorded his appointment on 23 September, Billionaires.Africa reports.
The €10,000 of capital says nothing about how much Saham plans to invest, and no target has been named. The family is not new to Spain: it has property interests in Marbella, and according to the company database Empresia, Moulay Mhamed Elalamy has been a joint administrator of Saham Real Estate Spain SL since December 2023.
How the Elalamy family became a seller
Saham’s insurance arm, Saham Finances, was sold in steps. South Africa’s Sanlam bought 30% in 2016 and held 46.6% a year later. On 7 March 2018 it agreed to buy the remaining 53.4% for $1.05 billion, and the deal closed on 11 October 2018, according to Médias24. So $1.05 billion was the price of the last slice, not of the whole business.
The second exit was Majorel, a customer-service outsourcing group in which Saham and Germany’s Bertelsmann each held 39.49%. In April 2023, France’s Teleperformance offered €30 a share, or €3 billion for all of Majorel’s shares. That is the price of the whole company, not Saham’s proceeds. By our arithmetic, Saham’s stake was worth roughly €1.2 billion at the offer price. Both main shareholders chose Teleperformance shares as payment; because that option was capped, they received a mix of shares and cash.
What Saham did after its exits
- A bank. In April 2024 Saham agreed to buy Société Générale’s 57.67% stake in its Moroccan bank, together with the life insurer La Marocaine Vie, for €745 million. The deal completed in December 2024, and the bank now operates as Saham Bank.
- More of the buyer. Saham kept its Teleperformance shares, about 4% of the company in 2025, according to Jeune Afrique as reported by Le360. In March 2026 a vehicle called Saham Investments IV Limited signed an equity swap (a derivative contract on a share’s price) worth up to €355 million, to be settled in shares. By September, Morocco World News counted about 7.58 million shares, roughly 12.7% of Teleperformance, based on filings with France’s market regulator.
- A small foreign lender. In May 2026, Africa Intelligence reported that Moulay Hafid Elalamy had quietly acquired Arktika Capital AB, a licensed Swedish lender that buys bad-loan portfolios from European banks. Le Desk put his control, through Saham vehicles, at 92.3%, but said he co-founded the bank rather than bought it, routing about €11.35 million of new capital from Monaco through Dubai and Luxembourg in 2025.
Why a holding in Dubai and a company in each country
A holding company owns shares in other companies instead of running a business itself (we explain the building blocks in Holding Structures in Plain English). At the top, it collects dividends and sale proceeds in one place and decides where they go next. Below it, a small company in each country does the local work: it signs contracts, holds the local assets and deals with that country’s tax office and regulators. If one investment goes wrong, the loss stays in its own box.
Why Dubai? Saham has not said. Families usually choose the top location for its tax rules and treaties, its banks, and where the family and its managers live. The UAE has no personal income tax, and since 2023 it has charged a 9% corporate tax with relief, under conditions, for dividends and gains on large shareholdings. A top holding also needs real substance: tax authorities look at where decisions are made, not just where a company is registered.
People, not just paperwork
Moulay Hafid Elalamy was Morocco’s minister of industry and trade from 2013 to 2021. His son came home in 2013 and worked through several Saham units before taking the top job, according to Billionaires.Africa. A hired specialist heads the Spanish company. A family member at the top and professionals running each vehicle is what a family office looks like in practice.
A fair caveat
The Spanish details come from press reports of the registry; we could not open the BORME entry ourselves. PwC’s role and the Dubai base of Saham Investments Ltd rest on one outlet. Reports of the Teleperformance stake vary, and the Arktika story is disputed. Saham has announced no plans for Spain.
Five lessons to take away
- An exit changes the family’s job. After a sale, the work shifts from running companies to deciding where capital goes.
- Read headline deal values carefully. €3 billion bought all of Majorel; Saham’s share was about 39.5%, partly paid in shares.
- Taking the buyer’s shares makes you its investor. Saham kept its Teleperformance shares and later more than tripled the stake.
- Give each country and each deal its own box. A small local company keeps contracts, risks and taxes separate.
- A sale does not end concentration. A Moroccan bank and a large Teleperformance stake are big single bets again (see five common mistakes).
Questions to bring to your advisors
If we sold our main business, where would the top holding sit, and why there? Would we accept the buyer’s shares, and for how long would we hold them? Which local companies would we need, who would run them, and what would each cost every year? These are questions to bring to your lawyers and tax advisors, not advice.
