Moroccan businessman Mohamed Hassan Bensalah has notified Morocco’s Competition Council of a proposed acquisition of the entire share capital of the companies controlling the Le Matin media group.
The proposed deal would give Bensalah sole ownership of four holding companies and exclusive control of the Moroccan media group. The transaction would be carried out in his personal capacity, rather than through Holmarcom, the diversified group he chairs.
The notification covers four companies: Word Publishing, Word Distribution, Word Advertising and Word Printing, as well as their subsidiaries. Together, they own Société Nouvelle Maroc Soir, the parent company of Le Matin, whose share capital stands at 282.4 million dirhams.
All four companies are based in Casablanca and operate exclusively as holding companies, with no independent operational activities.
The Le Matin group operates across print, digital media, television, advertising and printing. Its publications include the daily newspapers Le Matin and Assahra Al Maghribia, as well as the digital platforms lematin.ma, almaghribia.ma and sports.lematin.ma. It also runs the television channel Matin TV.
Its advertising activities include selling advertising space across its media platforms and publishing legal and administrative notices through the annonces.lematin.ma portal.
The group also has industrial operations through its subsidiary Les Imprimeries du Matin. The company prints the group’s newspapers and provides printing services to external clients, including school textbooks, supplementary educational materials, commercial printing, advertising materials and flat cardboard packaging.
Bensalah is chairman of Holmarcom, a Moroccan conglomerate with interests in financial services, agribusiness, logistics and real estate. However, the acquisition proposal specifies that he intends to make the purchase directly, in his own name.
The Competition Council’s notification opens the review process for the proposed economic concentration. Interested third parties have 10 days from the publication of the notice to submit their comments, with 23 November 2026 set as the deadline.
The deal remains subject to the council’s examination. Its notification does not amount to final approval or confirm that ownership has been transferred.
No details have been disclosed about the proposed sale price or the expected completion date.
If approved and completed, the transaction would make Bensalah the sole shareholder of the four holding companies controlling Le Matin and its media, advertising and printing operations.
