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In accordance with Article 13 of Law No. 104-12 on freedom of prices and competition and Article 10 of Decree No. 2-14-652 adopted for its implementation, as amended and supplemented, the Competition Council makes available to the public the « summary of the transaction » below, containing the information provided by the parties.
This information was prepared by the notifying parties, who are solely responsible for it. Any inaccurate or distorted information it may contain does not in any way prejudge the position of the Competition Council on the proposed transaction.
The publication of this statement does not attest to the completeness of the notification file provided for in Article 9 of Decree No. 2-14-652 adopted for the implementation of Law No. 104-12 on freedom of prices and competition, as amended and supplemented.
Names of the companies and groups concerned:
- The acquirer: Monsieur Mohamed Hassan Bensalah, acting in a personal capacity and in his own name;
- The targets: the companies « Word Publishing SA », « Word Distribution SA », « Word Advertising SA », « Word Printing SA » and their subsidiaries (together Groupe Le Matin).
Nature of the transaction:
- Acquisition of exclusive control.
Economic sectors concerned:
- Print media publishing sector (national daily newspapers and periodicals);
- Digital media, online press and audiovisual production sector;
- Advertising sales and legal notice publication sector;
- Press publication printing sector on behalf of third parties;
- School and supplementary textbook publishing and printing sector;
- Commercial printing and paperboard packaging sector.
Deadline for interested third parties to submit their observations:
- 10 days from the date of publication of this statement, namely 23 novembre 2026.
NON-CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE TRANSACTION PROVIDED BY THE PARTIES
The Competition Council has received notification of a proposed economic concentration consisting of the acquisition by Monsieur Mohamed Hassan Bensalah of exclusive control of the companies « Word Publishing SA », « Word Distribution SA », « Word Advertising SA », « Word Printing SA » and their subsidiaries (together Groupe Le Matin), through the acquisition of the entire share capital of the aforementioned companies and the associated voting rights.
Monsieur Mohamed Hassan Bensalah is a Moroccan businessman, chairman of the Holmarcom group, an industrial and financial group whose activities include financial services, agribusiness, logistics and real estate.
« Word Publishing SA » is a public limited company under Moroccan law with a share capital of 1 000 000,00 dirhams, registered with the Casablanca Trade Register under number 130359 and whose registered office is located at n° 11, rue Ibnou Toufail Palmier, Casablanca, Maroc. « Word Publishing SA » acts as a holding company with no operational activities of its own.
« Word Distribution SA » is a public limited company under Moroccan law with a share capital of 1 000 000,00 dirhams, registered with the Casablanca Trade Register under number 130365 and whose registered office is located at n° 11, rue Ibnou Toufail Palmier, Casablanca, Maroc. « Word Distribution SA » acts as a holding company with no operational activities of its own.
« Word Advertising SA » is a public limited company under Moroccan law with a share capital of 1 000 000,00 dirhams, registered with the Casablanca Trade Register under number 130361 and whose registered office is located at n° 11, rue Ibnou Toufail Palmier, Casablanca, Maroc. « Word Advertising SA » acts as a holding company with no operational activities of its own.
« Word Printing SA » is a public limited company under Moroccan law with a share capital of 1 000 000,00 dirhams, registered with the Casablanca Trade Register under number 130363 and whose registered office is located at n° 11, rue Ibnou Toufail Palmier, Casablanca, Maroc.
« Word Printing SA » acts as a holding company with no operational activities of its own. The companies « Word Publishing SA », « Word Distribution SA », « Word Advertising SA » and « Word Printing SA » jointly control « Société Nouvelle Maroc Soir SA ».
« Société Nouvelle Maroc Soir SA » is a public limited company under Moroccan law with a share capital of 282 400 000,00 dirhams, registered with the Casablanca Trade Register under number 114045 and whose registered office is located at n° 17, rue Othmane Ibnou Affane, Casablanca, Maroc. « Société Nouvelle Maroc Soir SA » is the parent company of Groupe Le Matin.
Groupe Le Matin is an operator in the daily news publishing sector in Morocco, in its print and electronic versions. The group publishes, in particular, the daily newspapers « Le Matin » and « Assahra Al Maghribia », as well as the websites lematin.ma, almaghribia.ma and sports.lematin.ma, their social media accounts, and oversees the « Matin TV » channel. The Group also carries out, as secondary activities, advertising sales on behalf of its own media outlets, legal and administrative notices through a network of agencies and the website annonces.lematin.ma, as well as printing through its subsidiary « Les Imprimeries du Matin », for its own publications and for third parties. This activity includes the printing and distribution of school textbooks, the printing of supplementary textbooks, digital commercial printing, point-of-sale advertising materials (PLV), as well as the printing of paperboard intended for packaging.
Done in Rabat, on 12 novembre 2026.
