Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun and Holmarcom

The story

1. 1933Les Eaux Minérales d'Oulmès starts bottling water at Oulmès, in the Middle Atlas. The company behind Sidi Ali starts here.
2. 1943The company lists on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
3. 1962Miriem Bensalah is born in Casablanca.Sources disagree: Some online summaries say 1963. The sources say 1962. The exact day, 14 November, is widely repeated but not confirmed by a primary source.
4. 1978Her father, Abdelkader Bensalah, founds Holmarcom.
5. 1980-1984She studies in Paris, at ESCP and Paris IX-Dauphine.
6. 1986She earns an MBA in International Management and Finance from the University of Dallas.
7. 1989She joins Holmarcom as deputy CEO of Les Eaux Minérales d'Oulmès.Sources disagree: 1990 is the second-most-cited year. 1986 is a mix-up with her graduation year.
8. 1993Her father dies. Her brother Mohamed Hassan Bensalah, born 1970, becomes chairman and CEO of Holmarcom.
9. 29 Apr 2009Air Arabia Maroc launches. Its first flight is Casablanca to London Stansted.
10. 16 May 2012She is elected president of CGEM, the employers' confederation, with 96.8% of the votes. She is the first woman to lead it, and the first woman in the Middle East and North Africa elected to such a role.
11. 2015She is re-elected at CGEM.
12. 22 May 2018She leaves CGEM. Salaheddine Mezouar succeeds her.
13. 27 Apr 2022Holmarcom signs an agreement to buy Crédit Agricole's 78.7% of Crédit du Maroc. The first part, 63.7%, closes on 6 December 2022. The last 15% follows on 7 June 2024.
14. 29 Apr 2026BNP Paribas agrees to sell its 67% of BMCI to Holmarcom Finance Company. The deal is announced, not closed.

The group

Holmarcom started in 1978. It has five parts: finance, agro-industry, distribution and logistics, air transport, and real estate. Its head office is at 20, rue Mustapha El Maâni in Casablanca. Turnover reached 12.1 billion dirhams in 2022. The group says it employs more than 3,500 people. Other sources say 5,100 or 6,400. The balance sheet jumped to 90.4 billion dirhams in 2022, but that was the Crédit du Maroc deal, not growth. Holmarcom also works in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso and Kenya. The map here is Morocco only.

The water

Les Eaux Minérales d'Oulmès is the water company. It started in 1933 and listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange in 1943. Its brands are Sidi Ali, Oulmès, Bahia and Aïn Atlas. In 2025 it sold 3.25 billion dirhams' worth of water, up 10.6% on 2024. Profit was 112 million dirhams, up 94%. It employs 3,874 people. The water reaches more than 120,000 shops. It has four factories and nine distribution centres. The main plant is at Oulmès, where the water has been bottled since 1933. The other three are in Bouskoura, Oujda and Agadir. The head office sits in the Bouskoura industrial zone, at Zone Industrielle de Bouskoura, 20180 Casablanca.

The airline

Air Arabia Maroc launched on 29 April 2009. It is a joint venture of Air Arabia, Regional Air Lines and Ithmaar Bank. Holmarcom is one of its Moroccan shareholders. How much it owns is not published. The first flight was Casablanca to London Stansted. The airline has four bases in Morocco: Casablanca, its hub at Mohammed V airport, plus Fès, Nador and Tangier. It serves nine Moroccan airports and flies to around 35 destinations. The Agadir base closed in October 2019. Tetouan is sometimes named as a destination, but that is not verified, so it is not on the map.

The bank and the insurer

This part has no pins. A bank branch is not a place to visit on a map like a factory, and no city-by-city list is published. The facts: Holmarcom agreed in April 2022 to buy Crédit Agricole's 78.7% of Crédit du Maroc. The deal closed in two parts, in December 2022 and June 2024. After a share sale in October 2024, Holmarcom holds 65.65% today, through Holmarcom Finance Company with 54.61% and AtlantaSanad with 11.04%. The bank has around 265 to 270 branches. It was founded in 1929 and its head office is in Casablanca. AtlantaSanad, the insurer, was created in 2020 from the merger of Atlanta and Sanad. It is Morocco's second-largest non-life insurer, with around 360 agents and 300 broker partners, in all 12 regions. It employs more than 600 people. Since January 2025 it is the bank's exclusive bancassurance partner.

The map: where the group is in Morocco

17 pins across 12 cities. Casablanca has the most, with four. Bouskoura and Fès have two each. The rest have one. Blue pins are the water company: four factories and eight distribution centres. The dark pin is the group head office. Red pins are the airline: one hub and three bases. Every pin marks a city, at the coordinates in the research brief. No street address was verified.

What the map shows

The map shows the water company, the group head office and the airline. Four factories, eight distribution centres, one head office, one hub and three bases. All of it is in Morocco, in 12 cities.

What the map leaves out

The map leaves out the bank and the insurer. Crédit du Maroc has around 265 to 270 branches and AtlantaSanad has around 360 agents, but no city-by-city list is published, so they are not pinned. It also leaves out the Tan-Tan factory, the ninth distribution centre and Tetouan for the airline. The first two are unconfirmed or unpublished. Tetouan as an Air Arabia Maroc destination is unverified.

What could not be verified

• Her father as a signatory of the 1944 Manifesto of Independence. It is repeated in many places, but no independent source confirms it.
• The exact day she was born. 14 November is widely repeated, but no primary source confirms it. Some AI-written summaries say 1963. The sources say 1962.
• The year she joined Holmarcom. 1989 is the best-supported year. 1990 is the second-most-cited. 1986 is a mix-up with her graduation year.
• How many people Holmarcom employs. The group says more than 3,500. Other sources say 5,100 or 6,400.
• How many branches Crédit du Maroc has. Around 265 to 270, depending on the source.
• How much of Air Arabia Maroc Holmarcom owns. It is one of the Moroccan shareholders. The size of its stake is not published.
• The BMCI deal. It is announced, not closed. A merger with Crédit du Maroc is reported as planned, but no structure, brand or timetable has been published.
• In 2024 EASA reported serious findings on crew scheduling and airworthiness at Air Arabia Maroc. No public resolution has been published.

Sources

The figures on this page come from the sources below. No formal investigation, lawsuit or regulatory action against Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun or Holmarcom was found in 2025-2026.

• Wikipedia — Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun (Index only)
• Wikipedia — Air Arabia Maroc (Index only)
• Holmarcom — holmarcom.ma (Index only)
• AMMC — Les Eaux Minérales d'Oulmès annual reports (RFA 2024, RFA 2025) (Index only)

Page written by Map Syndicat from the sources above. Map Syndicat is not affiliated with Holmarcom Group.