Moroccan Banking Giant Attijariwafa Eyes Acquisition of Société Générale’s Tunisian Subsidiary

According to Africa Business+ quoted by Challenge, Attijari bank Tunisie, the second largest private bank in the country in terms of deposits and loans, has been interested since August 2022 in the seventh Tunisian bank. The Moroccan banking group has recently resumed negotiations with Société Générale and the Tunisian financial authorities to take over the UIB, it is specified, recalling that the French group had announced in June its intention to open a strategic reflection on its 52.34% stake in the UIB. The Bouchamaoui Group (10%), the Bouaziz-Habib Group (6%) and the Sassi Group (5%) are the other shareholders of the UIB.

Attijariwafa bank, chaired by Mohamed El Kettani, is not the only one coveting the UIB. Tunisian investors such as Hassine Doghri, president of the UBCI bank (10th bank), La Carte Assurances (14th), or the Kilani Group (health, beauty and marketing), led by Lasaad and Rafik Kilani, are also interested in the takeover of the Société Générale subsidiary. But the Tunisian financial authorities would have a preference for "a foreign buyer, more able to bring in foreign exchange. Possibly with minority Tunisian partners".

"The weight of foreign assets reflects the bank’s ambitions for international development in the wake of the opening of the Moroccan economy to the global economy. In the areas of presence, the bank’s exposure is represented by financial participations through banking subsidiaries as growth relays in our continental development strategy," Attijariwafa said in its latest report, clearly displaying its expansion policy.