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Morocco's economic fabric is essentially composed of family businesses. It is made up of 90% SMBs and VSBs, over 80% of which are companies with family members. "A family-run business itself needs to be defined. Is it about control? Governance? Management?”, asked Abdelkader Boukhriss, Chair of SFM Conseil. In any case, it is not created to carry out spot operations, but to sustain and build up a certain number of activities, or even to gain control over a few companies. "If the company's objective is to exist and last over the long term, then it should be set up as a holding company, since this is a good vehicle for managing the transfer and succession of assets," adds Abdelkader Boukhriss.

There are two types of holding company: bottom-up, in which companies are brought together in a holding company to be created, and top-down, in which the holding company is created first, and then holdings are acquired. As part of a long-term vision, family business owners will have to create a charter in which they set out how they intend to pass on these family-run businesses to the next 2 or 3 generations, looking at issues such as governance, remuneration, investment and strategy, etc. 

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