Moroccan businessman Moulay Hafid Elalamy has expanded his banking interests into Europe after taking control of Swedish credit institution Arktika Capital. The move was made through his Saham Group, which now owns 92.3% of the Stockholm-based company.
The remaining shares are held by minority investors and the firm’s Nordic founders.
The deal was put together over nine months between March and December 2025. Reports show that €11.35m was channelled through a network of companies linked to Elalamy’s family office before being invested in Arktika Capital.
Following the takeover, Elalamy’s son, Moulay Mhamed Elalamy, was appointed chief executive of the group’s parent structure. He previously helped grow customer relations company Majorel before its merger with French outsourcing giant Teleperformance.
Arktika Capital is regulated by Sweden’s financial watchdog, Finansinspektionen. Its main business is buying bad loans from European banks at discounted prices and trying to recover part of the money over time.
The company focuses on unpaid consumer loans and credit card debt. It uses data and predictive models to estimate how much money can be recovered before buying loan portfolios.
Arktika also operates a savings platform called Arktika Spar. It offers fixed-term savings accounts to Swedish customers for periods ranging from three months to four years.
Because the company holds a Swedish banking licence, deposits are protected by the country’s state guarantee scheme up to one million Swedish kronor. This gives Arktika a stable source of funding for its loan purchases.
Earlier this year, the company integrated the Vilja banking platform to automate deposits and speed up the launch of new products.
The ownership structure behind the deal spans several countries. Funds were first organised through entities in Monaco and Dubai before being transferred to a holding company in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg vehicle then provided the capital used to establish and fund Arktika Capital in Sweden.
The remaining 7.7% stake is held by existing investors, including co-founders Jan Altersten, who runs local operations, and chairman Mattias Carlsson.
The acquisition is part of Elalamy’s wider push into banking and financial services after the sale of Saham’s African insurance business in 2018. His investments also include a significant stake in Teleperformance and the launch of Saham Bank in Morocco.
