Founded in 1934, ONA was formerly known as Compagnie Générale de Transport et de Tourisme (CGTT - 1919), and was initially involved in transport, mining, automobile and equipment material.

In the beginning of the 1980's, the Group diversified its activities through equity investments in various business segments, mainly dairy products (Centrale Laitière, Pingouin), sugar (Cosumar), oil & fats (Unigral Cristal, Sepo), banking (Société de Banque et de Crédit), marine transit, chemical products and textile.
ONA pursued its development in these traditional business segments through :

-Equity investment in Lesieur Afrique.
-Acquisition of Sugar mills by Cosumar.
-Acquisition of 40 per cent stake in Banque Commerciale du Maroc.
-Equity investment in Compagnie Africaine d'Assurances.
-Acquisition of an industrial fishing fleet and equity investments in the canned fish industry.
-Development of mining activities.

In the early 90's, ONA entered into cutting-edge domains such as communications, multimedia, modern retail distribution and real-estate.  ONA became the largest Moroccan industrial and services group in the private sector. In 1995, ONA S.A. went public.

After years of strong development and diversification, the Group started making strategic moves between 1995 and 1997 by refocusing its business activities. The group’s objective was to capitalize on competitive advantages and foster growth (mining & construction materials, agribusiness, distribution, banking, Insurance, etc…).

These investments allowed the Group to expand to the critical size needed, in order to consider external growth opportunities. Between 1999 and 2003, the Group capitalized on its external growth by consolidating its position and establishing strong partnerships with several international companies.
In 1999, ONA took control of SNI (Société Nationale d'Investissement). The new entity ONA-SNI formed a group with stronger position.

The Group has signed several strategic agreements: 

This phase was resumed through the reorganization of ONA's and SNI's portfolio and assets. In 2003, the Group operated a rotation of equity stakes, and SNI became the main shareholder of ONA S.A with 29.84 per cent stake. This rotation enabled the Group to reduce its debt and improve its financial structure, which allowed the Group to pursue its investment strategy and increase its stake in the banking activity  and ultimately the takeover of Wafabank and the merge of BCM and Wafabank to become Attijariwafa bank.

Main historical dates