S&P Maalot upgraded this week the credit rating of Phoenix Investment House, citing a step change in the Israeli asset manager and brokerage’s financial and business profile after stronger operating performance in 2025, steady growth in activity and a firmer competitive position in the domestic market.
The rating agency raised the company’s long-term issuer credit rating to ilAA- from a lower level and assigned a stable outlook. It also upgraded the short-term rating to ilA-1+.
In its rating report, S&P Maalot pointed to material improvement in the company’s operating results in 2025, as well as continued expansion across its core businesses. Phoenix Investment House, founded in 1992 and controlled since 2016 by Phoenix Financial Ltd., which holds about 88% of its shares, operates in asset management and brokerage services and also provides employee stock option plan, or ESOP, administration and trustee services, business intermediation and alternative investment activity.
Assets under management stood at about 140 billion shekels at the end of 2025, while the company’s market share in asset management was about 16%, according to the figures released with the announcement.
S&P Maalot highlighted consistent and significant growth in the company’s exchange member, or retail trading, activity. The number of trading clients rose to about 84,000 at the end of 2025 from about 39,000 at the end of 2023, more than doubling in two years. The agency said the expansion was supported by favorable capital markets trends, investment in the development and upgrade of trading systems and an improved customer experience, which in turn lifted trading commissions and supported profitability.
The report also cited the investment house’s credit activity as a complementary business line to its trading operation. Its credit portfolio totaled about 1.2 billion shekels at the end of 2025. S&P Maalot described the portfolio as relatively low risk, supported in part by marketable collateral and an average loan-to-value ratio of about 35%, allowing the company to diversify revenue streams without materially weakening its risk profile.
Avner Hadad Photo: Tommy HarpazThe agency said Phoenix Investment House benefits from a broad earnings mix that includes management fees on assets under management, trading commissions, a positive contribution from ESOP management and trustee activity and revenue from ancillary operations. That diversification, it said, underpins earnings stability and reduces reliance on a single source of income in a market marked by competition and fee pressure.
S&P Maalot also said the company’s credit quality is supported by its strategic importance to the Phoenix group, one of Israel’s largest financial groups, giving it a strong corporate backstop, better access to funding and potential liquidity support if needed.
The company’s leverage and coverage metrics also improved. EBITDA-to-finance-expense coverage was about 17.0x, while debt-to-EBITDA stood at about 1.8x at the end of 2025.
Avner Hadad, chief executive of Phoenix Investment House and co-CEO of KSM Mutual Funds, said the upgrade “reflects the business strength of Phoenix Investment House across all of its operations, the accelerated growth in brokerage activity and the diversification of our profit sources.”
He added that “the combination of organic growth, controlled credit activity and strong corporate backing allows us to continue investing in development, technology and advanced client service over time.”