Phoenix Financial Ltd. (PHOE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello. This is David Alexander, Deputy CEO of Phoenix Financial. Thank you for joining us to discuss the results for the first half of 2026. The call will be led by Phoenix CEO, Eyal Ben Simon; and CFO and Deputy CEO, Eli Schwartz. The presentation for the call can be found on our website or the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website. It provides key points on the financial statements released this morning and should be read together with the full financials. At the end of the call, we'll answer questions that were discussed today on the Hebrew call. You can send any additional questions to us individually or to the e-mail address ir@fnx.co.il. We're available to meet with investors to discuss performance, strategy or any questions. Please note that the call will include forward-looking statements and that actual future results may be different. First, Eyal will talk about the company's results and the strategic growth. Eli will then review the group's financial results in more detail by segment.

Phoenix is the leading Israeli financial platform and asset manager with $220 billion in assets under management. We have 2 sets of activities. First, a broad asset management business with growth engines generating fee-related and recurring earnings. The second is a multiline insurance business, including a market-leading P&C business as well as significant life and health businesses. Together, these activities create a broad integrated financial platform for our clients. They generate synergies, data, high profitable growth and strong cash flows. Phoenix provides access to Israel's dynamic economy. The market benefits from strong long-term demographic trends, productivity growth and wealth accumulation. And the Israeli economy continues to show strong resilience coming out of our -- out of the war with Iran. GDP returned to high growth in the second quarter with attractive forecast for 2026 and 2027. We see continued growth in savings with investments substituting for deposits. Turning to financial results. Phoenix delivered another strong half with ILS 1.6 billion of comprehensive income, ILS 6.3 earnings per share. Return on equity was 26% and total AUMs reached ILS 660 billion. There are several main takeaways for the first half of the year. First, Phoenix continues to deliver strong performance. Core earnings grew by 10%, above expectations. This was driven by 36% growth in asset management in the first half and 48% in the second quarter. These are primarily recurring fee-related earnings, shifting the mix toward the more capital-light businesses. Insurance continues to create strong cash flow in line with expectations. In light of the strong performance and growth, we plan to reassess and update our guidance. Second, Phoenix continues to disrupt Israel's financial sector. The integrated Phoenix platform is distinctive in the breadth and depth of our offering. We now have 1 million app users with growing cross-sells, and we're moving fast on turning AI into competitive advantages across our businesses. At the same time, we're building new capabilities and executing M&As. We launched an international P&C reinsurance capacity. We're capturing synergies in recent acquisitions, including the BuyMe Digital platform and in wealth management. We see continued inorganic growth to create synergies, build capabilities and improve our client value propositions. Third, Phoenix is generating growing capital returns. We're distributing 62% or nearly ILS 1 billion from H1 income, including buybacks and the ILS 400 million dividend announced this morning. This is aligned with our guidance of at least 55% payouts in 2026. In addition, we extended our 2026 buyback plan from ILS 300 million to ILS 400 million. Here, we see a breakdown of the growth in income. On the right, we see half H1 comprehensive income of ILS 1.6 billion and core income of ILS 1.5 billion. In orange, Asset Management grew by 36% in H1 and 48% in Q2, shifting the mix in earnings. In blue, insurance was stable with nearly ILS 900 million in H1. Q2 impacted by the cycle in motor property segment as expected and in line with medium-term guidance. Investments added about ILS 120 million in positive nonoperating effects in the first half. Return on equity for the first half was 26% and core return on equity was 24%. Our investment team continues to manage capital allocation for both our client and corporate capital pools. Corporate account H1 annualized returns were 8%. H1 and the 5-year average are both higher than our normalization rate of 2.5% above risk-free, pointing to upside to guidance. Phoenix is growing quarterly payouts with an average of roughly 5% dividend yields in the last few years. So far in 2026, we distributed nearly ILS 1 billion, which is 62% of comprehensive income. This includes dividends and buybacks. Today, we announced a dividend of ILS 1.6 per share or ILS 400 million overall for the second quarter of 2026. Adding ILS 170 million of buybacks we distribute 65% of quarter income. Looking forward, we increased our annual buyback plan from ILS 300 million to ILS 400 million. Our earnings quality is translated into strong cash flows. The group enjoys cash remittance from subsidiaries every quarter. Here, we see quarterly dividends from key subsidiaries with a total of more than ILS 1 billion from H1. We'll now discuss strategy and guidance across our businesses. The opportunity we are seeing is rapid asset accumulation and value creation in Israel. The Israeli economy enjoys strong structural tailwinds with steady growth in population, GDP per capita and wealth accumulation. These tailwinds contribute directly to the increase in financial assets held by the public, which have more than doubled in the last 10 years. This demand drives growth in financial services. On the top right, we see that the market cap of Israeli financial services has grown more than 5x in the last decade to ILS 500 billion. Below, we also see that this value is shifting towards asset management and insurance. Clients are moving away from deposits and towards funds, tradings and alternatives. The younger clients are driving the change. And as the population grows, we expect this trend to accelerate. Phoenix is leading this disruption, growing from 2% to 7% of the total market cap, but we aim to take a much larger share of this growing value. Phoenix is capturing this opportunity. The Phoenix platform offers a broad value proposition across investments, savings, insurance and credit. We have diversified fees, competitive advantages across the value chain and strong performance. Going forward, we continue to grow based on our growth and value drivers. compounding organic growth, innovation and technology driving cross-sales and competitive advantages, inorganic growth and growing capital returns. Here, you can see how the strategy translates to numbers. We expect baseline core income organic growth of 10% through 2028. This is driven by asset management with 20% growth guidance and 36% H1 actual growth, shifting the mix toward recurring fee earnings. Insurance generating strong cash flows for the group with cyclical motor segment impact this year, still in line with 2028 guidance. Beyond these baseline organic figures, we're seeing significant upside potential. This includes, for example, the early impact of the platform opportunity, acquisitions that have been completed or that will be executed, the stochastic model that is expected to add ILS 100 million pretax earnings and investment performance above our conservative normalization. Given the strong growth in asset management and the upside potential that is materializing, we will reassess and update this guidance. With 1 million app users, Phoenix is building strong digital capabilities across our businesses. The platform provides broad integrated financial services with a fully digital interface. Phoenix clients can invest, buy insurance, manage equity, take a loan and trade on the stock exchange in one place. The experience is simple, convenient and transparent with increasingly personalized journeys and offerings. For Phoenix, it is a significant opportunity for cross-sells and growth. Phoenix is compounding AUMs at high-double digits with a focus on high-margin activities. We see continued growth during H1 to ILS 658 billion, up 8% year-to-date. We're already close to our 2028 guidance range and plan to revisit this guidance as well. Our asset management businesses are compounding EBITDA at nearly 30%. This strong growth is driving wealth and investments on the one hand and brokers and advisers on the other hand. During H1, EBITDA grew by 29% and during Q2 by 40%. We expect EBITDA to grow both organically and with M&As. We're aiming for roughly ILS 2.4 billion to ILS 2.6 billion by 2028. These asset management businesses are very attractive with high multiples, both internationally and in Israel. We can now deep dive into the various asset management businesses. Phoenix continues to grow the wealth investments and retirement activities. Phoenix is market leader, and we intend to continue to deepen competitive advantages to capture market share. Our digital trading platform is growing quickly, driven by very strong market demand. We have a leading employee stock option administration platform with a new app as well as a broad set of relevant wealth investment products such as alternatives and portfolio management. And we're introducing new capabilities in wealth management to expand our service and offerings, both organically and through acquisitions. We believe that going forward, our broad client base will generate significant growth and cross-sales opportunities within our integrated platform. The Brokers and Advisors segment focuses on retirement planning and personal advisory, investments, benefit administration and insurance distribution. The business model relies on long-term relationships with clients and employers and generates strong recurring revenues and fee-based earnings. The platform activity continues to grow both organically and through roll-up acquisitions. While Phoenix is the market leader, we have only 8% share, so we see significant room for growth. Phoenix continues to grow our payments and financing activity while focusing on profitability and risk management. The business is based on a strong platform with a broad base of clients that provides credit card clearing, SME and consumer credit solutions. More than 50% of the business is credit card and payment solutions, generating low-risk fee-based earnings. This quarter, the BuyMe Digital platform was added to this segment following the completion of the acquisition. BuyMe is one of the most popular e-commerce apps in Israel with a unique pool of over 1.2 million users, 15,000 employers and over 1,000 merchants. We see significant synergies across our digital platforms and an even stronger client experience. The insurance activity provides a strong balance sheet and stable cash flows for the group. Here, we focus our growth on capital-light segments and products such as P&C and critical illness. In P&C, we focus on accelerating growth while maintaining margins. This business is naturally affected by market cyclicality in motor property, sometimes lagging international markets by 6 to 12 months. During the past year, we saw significant growth in number of direct motor property policies. We aim to continue to grow based on competitive advantages across the value chain, including underwriting, distribution, service and claims. In Life and Health, we focus our growth on low-risk products and segments. We're optimizing business models and CSM shifting to digital self-service and automation and improving productivity. Now Eli will take it from here and review the financial results and segments in more detail. Please, Eli.

Thank you, Eyal. This quarter, we are updating the allocation of investment returns with the insurance segment. Capital and investment performance are being allocated from other equity return segment to the business segment Life, Health and P&C. This change is in line with regulatory guidelines, IFRS and the best practice. The results of each segment now better aligned with the capital. As a result, about 2/3 of the investment income from other equity returns are now allocated to the business segment. In the table, you can see the pro forma relocations of the previous quarters. The update doesn't change the total income, only the allocation between the segment. Phoenix reports strong ILS 1.57 billion of comprehensive income in H1 2026. Asset Management showed a strong growth with 36% year-on-year. Insurance was in line with expectation with slightly lower compared with the record first half of last year. In the second quarter, we reported a strong ILS 872 million of comprehensive income. The earnings contribution is similar to the first half. Core earnings from asset management grew by about 50%. Insurance was slightly lower compared with the record quarter last year and in line with our expectations. Looking at the income by segment, we see significant contribution from all lines of business. We see a strong contribution from P&C, health and investment brokers and advisers segment. All are strategic growth engine of the group. Compared to previous year, we see a decline in life insurance due to risk claim in the second quarter. Looking at the second quarter, we see a similar picture with significant contribution from all lines of business. P&C was impacted by market cyclicality in motor property in addition to the life. Here, we see a full breakdown of the CSM evolution by segment. We focus on optimization of our CSM while increasing growth of new business. In addition, we are growing also in investment policies. The CSM balance will positively impact by implementation of stochastic models. We expect it to grow between ILS 1.2 billion to ILS 1.5 billion. The strong balance sheet provides financial flexibility for the group. We maintain low LTV in the Phoenix Financial as well as subsidiaries. During the second quarter, we obtained international rating for the Phoenix Financial by Moody's. This rating adds to the S&P rating for the Phoenix Financial and to the existing rating of Phoenix Insurance and the local rating of our subsidiaries. Solvency remained high at 177% with transition measured as of December. This strong solvency position is above long-term target of 150% to 170%. We expected the stochastic model to increase also our solvency ratio by 12%. Our capital position and the surplus provide flexibility for growth and cash flow going forward. We will now review each segment in more details. P&C is performing as expected and in line with guidance. We report ILS 590 million income before tax in first half in the segment, similar to the record period of last year. Motor property was affected by the cycle, mainly in the second quarter. This is in line with our expectation market trends. We use our capabilities with mainly in underwriting to capture market opportunities and grow in number of clients. The number of policies in the direct channel grew significantly over the past year. We continue to grow and manage the business closely based on market trends and risk. In the health segment, we see the improvement in core income. Comprehensive income before tax was ILS 637 million in the first half. In this segment, we are focused in capital-efficient activities with low long-term risk like critical illness insurance, for example. The Life segment generated ILS 227 million before tax in the first half. Underwriting profit declined mainly in the second quarter. This was due to specific increase in actual claims. Going forward, we expect this stochastic model to add about ILS 100 million to the segment core income before tax. Other equity returns reflect the change in the investment return allocation method. The Wealth and Investments segment contributed ILS 338 million before tax in the first half. This segment includes activities of the Phoenix Investment House, Phoenix Capital Partners and investment policies. We see a strong growth in alternative and wealth. Our funds and brokerage business continued to grow and demonstrate the change in the market trends and client demand. The retirement business contribute was ILS 76 million pretax in the first half. We are focusing on efficiency and improving profitability. The Brokers and Advisor segment delivered ILS 238 million of income before tax in the first half. We see a strong growth of 30% year-on-year. This includes organic growth as well as synergy from roll-up M&As. We continue to capture value in a fragmented market. The Payment and Financing segment generated ILS 123 million before tax. More than half of the income come from fee-based payment activities. We consolidated BuyMe performance for the first time in the quarter are starting to capture synergies. The company also increased its stake in from 20% to 25%, further contribution to our fee-related earnings. In financing, the company continued to grow business credit, consumer credit and construction financing. At the same time, we are maintaining responsible credit portfolio with strong risk management.

Thank you, Eli. For additional information and resources, you can visit our website at www.phoenixfinancial.co.il. We'll now review the questions that were discussed in the conference call today in Hebrew. First question, you're showing strong growth in asset management. What's driving this growth? And do you expect growth to continue at this pace?

First, numbers talk. We've seen growth of 48% quarter-to-quarter in 2026 and 36% growth in the first half. So it means that there is a lot of demand for financial products and financial services. And Phoenix is a market leader in that space. It means that we have built ourselves to capture this demand, and we see that demand not only from what Phoenix is providing, but also from the market itself. The amount of financial assets in Israel have grown significantly in the last 10 years, more than doubled itself to ILS 7.7 trillion. And it means that Israelis now are interested in much more developed or advanced financial products like we've seen in other markets like in the U.S. and other advanced markets. And Israel is a bit behind, but the catch-up would be much faster. And Phoenix -- in Phoenix, we have built the whole capabilities, a very comprehensive solutions from digital platforms, different products, distribution channels through our agencies and so on and so forth. And it means that eventually, this demand will keep growing and the pace will also go up. And we've seen that in the last few years, quarter after quarter, we have managed to grow our asset management business. So generally, the answer is yes, definitely.

Second question. In your guidance, you committed to payout of at least 55% of the company's earnings. In the first half, you distributed more than 60%. Is this the level we should expect going forward?

Above 55% for sure. This is our guidance. This is our policy. This is our commitment, 45% at least in cash dividend and above that by buyback, but it's just a minimum numbers, meaning Phoenix as we did in the first half and definitely in the second quarter, we have paid out more than the 55%. In the second quarter, we are already on 65% payout in cash dividend and in buyback. And the guidance -- we're committed to this guidance of at least 55%. So in each and every quarter, of course, every year, we'll pay more than that.