Chronology
The Business Journey
Four decades set out in sequence — from the founding of Sanam Holding in 1986 to the consolidation of the group’s insurance position in 2026. Only dated, documented events appear here.
Timeline of Saïd Alj’s business career
-
1986
Sanam Holding is founded
Alj establishes Sanam Holding in Casablanca. The company is structured as a permanent holding vehicle rather than an investment fund — a distinction that determines how every later position is taken and held. It remains the parent of the group four decades on.
Foundation -
1993
Executive control of Unimer
In August he is appointed président-délégué of Unimer, a canning company whose lineage runs back to 1920 and the export of preserves from Morocco under the protectorate.
The timing matters. Morocco was then several years into a liberalisation and privatisation programme that was opening industrial assets to domestic capital, and the canning sector was fragmented across many small operators.
Agri-food -
1995
President of Unimer
He takes the presidency and sets the strategy that defines the following twenty years: vertical integration around the canning operation — securing supply, adding freezing and processing capacity, and building an owned export brand rather than packing for others.
Strategy -
2001
Listing on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, and Top Food
Unimer is introduced to the Casablanca Stock Exchange in March, giving the group a quoted currency for acquisitions and submitting it to public reporting. In the same year it acquires Top Food.
Public markets -
2004
UniConserves
A dedicated subsidiary is created for olive preserves, extending the group beyond fish into the wider Moroccan agri-processing base and reducing dependence on a single catch-driven input.
Diversification -
2010
Absorption of Monégasque-Vanelli Maroc
Unimer absorbs Monégasque-Vanelli Maroc in a transaction reported at some 700 million dirhams — the largest single step in the consolidation of Moroccan pelagic canning under one listed roof.
The structure is characteristic: the target is absorbed into the listed parent rather than run alongside it, concentrating capacity instead of dispersing it across subsidiaries.
Consolidation -
2012
Absorption of Consernor
A second absorption follows the same pattern, further concentrating processing capacity within the listed group and completing the essential shape of Unimer as it stands today.
Consolidation -
2018
Chairman in insurance
In September he becomes chairman of Saham Assurance, following the sale of the wider Saham insurance business to the South African group Sanlam. The company subsequently trades as Sanlam Maroc.
It is a notable position: a Moroccan industrialist chairing a listed domestic insurer inside a pan-African financial group.
Financial services -
2026
The Sanlam Maroc – Allianz Maroc merger
Approval of the merger between Sanlam Maroc and Allianz Maroc in June 2026 enlarges the combined insurer. Alj’s holding moves to 384,928 shares, or about 7.2 per cent of the company — an increase arising from the transaction itself rather than from any purchase of stock.
Following the merger he is described as the only significant individual Moroccan shareholder in the combined business.
Financial services
The industry beneath the timeline
What the dates are actually about
Every entry above turns on the same physical resource. The Canary Current runs cold down Morocco’s Atlantic coast and drives an upwelling that feeds one of the richest small-pelagic fisheries anywhere — sardine, anchovy and mackerel in volumes that have supported a Moroccan canning industry since the 1920s.
A cannery is only as good as its access to that catch and its ability to hold it. The acquisitions, the freezing capacity along the coast at Agadir and Dakhla, and the absorptions of 2010 and 2012 are all moves on the same board: securing supply, then concentrating the capacity to process it.
Reading the sequence
Three things the timeline shows
Long holding periods
The Unimer position, begun in 1993, has now run more than thirty years. Sanam Holding itself has never been broken up or sold.
Absorption over accumulation
Acquisitions in 2010 and 2012 were absorbed into the listed parent rather than kept as standalone subsidiaries.
Widening, then deepening
Expansion moved outward into retail, distribution and insurance — then back inward, concentrating positions rather than adding new ones.