Phoenix establishes a hedge fund management company
Israel's largest financial asset firm, Phoenix, is launching its own hedge fund division. The company is recruiting senior industry professionals to compete with established firms like Sphera and Alpha.
Phoenix is establishing a company for hedge funds. Calcalist has learned that in recent days, the largest financial asset company in Israel has begun recruiting senior professionals in the industry to launch its own hedge fund activity, which will compete with large hedge fund firms such as Sphera, Noked, ION, and Alpha.
According to the Gilboa company, which covers hedge funds in the country, the volume of assets in the hedge fund industry has grown at an accelerated pace in recent years and is approaching $25 billion. Unlike mutual funds, provident funds, or investment portfolios, institutional bodies that manage long-term and medium-term savings have not operated in the hedge fund sector until now. However, with the growth in assets, the field has come onto their radar. Thus, on Thursday, Calcalist reported that Harel, the second-largest institutional body, is in advanced negotiations to acquire the Tulip hedge fund, which manages about 400 million shekels.
The client base of hedge funds is fundamentally different from that of regular mutual funds. Traditionally, these are clients defined as qualified investors, meaning those with liquid capital of at least 8 million shekels. The choice of the top percentile for hedge funds stems, among other things, from a desire to diversify assets and not be overly dependent on the volatility of the capital market. In addition, hedge funds are supposed to provide protection during crisis periods, using strategies such as investing against the market direction.
The concern of investment managers in the hedging field is that the increasing competition in the industry will push prices downward. The traditional management fees in the hedging industry are 2% on a regular basis and up to 20% performance fees. Institutional bodies, in order to attract a new audience, may lower the fixed management fees and even the performance fees.
"The institutional bodies discovered the magic of hedge funds, which is the ability to participate in the yield profits. In 2025, which was characterized by increases of tens of percent in some funds, the managers pocketed millions and even tens of millions of shekels in some cases, a scenario that would not have happened in traditional markets," explained a senior figure in the hedge fund industry.
IBI also expanded its activity in the field when it acquired 50.05% of the management company of the Lotus Value hedge fund for about 15 million shekels. At the same time, the managers of the Sphera hedge fund acquired the Sela investment house, and Gabi Dishi, the controlling shareholder of the Alpha hedge fund, became a financial investor in the Kaven investment house.
