It went almost unnoticed. On May 7, 2026, Ahmed Rahhou’s Competition Council published a terse communiqué: Nouvelle Société Avant-Scène SA (NSAS), based in Hay Ryad in Rabat, with a capital of 10 million dirhams, was notifying its intention to acquire 40% of the capital and voting rights of Adeesy SARLAU, a Casablanca-based media agency located at Place Ollier in Gauthier, founded and wholly owned by Meryem Boutaleb. Third-party observation period: May 18. At first glance, the file looks like any minority stake acquisition in a small advertising firm. At first glance only.

This communiqué is the second of its kind in less than a month. On April 17, the same council had published a nearly identical notificatione, with one differing detail: the target was not a media agency, but Seven PM SARLAU, the producer of Jazzablanca, Tanjazz, and the Taghazout Bay Festival. Avant-Scène is taking a 45% stake, with longtime partner Moulay Ahmed Alami keeping the remaining 55%. In both cases, the acquirer is the same, the longtime partners remain majority shareholders — 60% for Boutaleb, 55% for Alami — and control becomes joint. Read separately, these transactions look like two opportunistic deals. Read together, they tell the story of two years of methodical consolidation — and the emergence of an integrated player without equivalent in Morocco.

BCP in support

To understand, we have to go back to the spring of 2024. On March 18, Avant-Scène’s board of directors co-opted Upline Investments as a director — the asset management subsidiary of Upline Group, itself owned by Banque Centrale Populaire. This marked BCP’s official entry into the capital. It should be noted that Upline Investments was then headed by Khaoula Ramdi (whose previous roles include Almamed, Capital Invest, and the Canadian fund Sarona…): she is the one representing BCP within NSAS. At the same time, Avant-Scène was relocating its Casablanca branch from Racine to Casa Finance City. For an events agency, this address in the financial free zone is not insignificant: it signals an institutional repositioning. Behind all of this, a heavyweight backer: BCP, via its investment bank Upline.

The next pivot came in December 2024. Share capital increased from 4 to 10 million dirhams through the incorporation of profits — multiplied by 2.5 without any injection of fresh money. A clear signal: the company had banked significant profits and was preparing its balance sheet for major operations. Two weeks later, the board of directors approved a rotation: Khaoula Ramdi handed over her seat to Othmane Tajeddine, then deputy CEO in charge of capital markets at BCP. His appointment to the board of an events agency is anything but routine: it reflects the strategic importance BCP places on this investment.

2025: the year of acceleration

At the start of 2025, things picked up speed. In late February, BCP’s board of directors, chaired for a few weeks by Naziha Belkeziz, renewed its top management: Othmane Tajeddine was promoted to International Banking, Abdeslam Bennani to Corporate & Investment Banking. Right after that, Tajeddine left his seat at NSAS: he was replaced by Najate Berrada as the representative of Upline Investments. In mid-March, the group signed 30.06 million dirhams worth of equipment leasing contracts. The sequence is clear: new BCP management, rotation at the Upline seat, wave of industrial equipment. This equipment would be used to deliver the AFCON opening ceremony nine months later, on December 21, 2025.

The machine then went into motion. In June 2025, Abdeslam Bennani, CEO of BCP’s Corporate & Investment Banking, personally joined the board of directors of NSAS. The head of BCP group’s investment bank thus became a director of an events agency: a rare configuration in Morocco. In September, NSAS took a stake in Red City Print, a Marrakech-based printing firm co-managed by Aly Horma and El Ghali Bousfiha, for 2.54 million dirhams and 667 shares: the first documented external acquisition of the new cycle. In late July, the company’s digital subsidiary, Avant Scène Media, changed its name to Enseigne Digitale. Then came the two transactions notified in April and May 2026: Seven PM, then Adeesy.

A four-trade empire

The math is inescapable. With Adeesy, Avant-Scène is bringing media buying in-house, putting it in direct competition with Havas Media Maroc and Initiative. With Seven PM, it is entering the ticketed festival production business: Jazzablanca — 70,000 festivalgoers in July 2025, voted best event in Morocco that same year —, Tanjazz, and Taghazout Bay Festival. Avant-Scène thus becomes the only Moroccan operator to design the event, sell the sponsorship, purchase the associated media, and operate the festival rights. Four trades, one banner.

This rise in power rests on an impressive public-sector order book. The crowning achievement came in December 2025: the AFCON opening ceremony at Moulay Abdellah Stadium, co-signed with Italy’s Balich Wonder Studio — the signature behind the Rio 2016 Olympics and the Qatar 2022 World Cup. By co-signing the Rabat event, Avant-Scène joined the very small circle of providers capable of delivering an event meeting FIFA standards.

Upstream, the International Publishing and Book Fair — a flagship contract of Mehdi Bensaid’s Ministry of Culture — has been awarded to NSAS five years in a row, with spectacular growth: from 22.9 million dirhams in 2022 to 48.4 million in 2026, beating out Belmejdoub Events. Add to that the Morocco Foodex contracts — the public agency in charge of promoting agri-food exports — including Fruit Logistica Berlin, the world’s leading trade fair for fresh fruits and vegetables (1.7 million for the initial contract).

A case apart: Chellah. The UNESCO-listed archaeological site is managed by the Rabat Region Historic Heritage Regional Development Company. In the fall of 2023, the SDR launched a call for expressions of interest to operate five concessions — café, restaurant, boutique, and two event esplanades. On April 1, 2024, Myriam Abikzer filed the articles of incorporation for Chellah en Scène, a single-shareholder LLC with a capital of 1 million dirhams whose corporate purpose matches this scope point by point. Six weeks after this subsidiary was created, the partnership was made official. Avant-Scène is not just operating the UNESCO site: it has registered the trademark. It is no longer a service provider, it is an owner.

Avant-Scène has been entrusted with part of the management of Chellah in Rabat. As of today, the Competition Council has not yet made public its decision on Seven PM; the observation period for Adeesy runs until May 18. In the background, the 2030 World Cup is approaching — four years of preparations during which public contracts will multiply. Avant-Scène is well-positioned to capture a significant share. No other Moroccan operator currently covers as many areas at once.

Written in French by Othman Berrada, edited in English by Eric Nielson