Moroccan group signs foreign loan to buy over insurance firm

The Moroccan bank "Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur" (BMCE) has signed in Frankfurt a syndicated loan of 160 million euros ($ 172.8 million) to finance the purchase of majority stakes in a Moroccan major insurance firm.

Moroccan business weekly "La vie Economique" reports in its latest issue that the loan, which is the biggest of its kind by a private Moroccan firm, will raise the Group's profile in the booming of the $ 1.0 billion local insurance market.

It is the German Commerzbank, which holds 10 % stakes of Morocco's BMCE bank headed by Benjelloun, which raised the syndicated loan involving twenty-five banks.

"Al Wataniya," the largest among Morocco's 15 insurance firms, holds 13.3 % of the local insurance market.