Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. ( he, הראל השקעות בביטוח ושירותים פיננסים בע"מ) is the largest insurance group in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It is a public company whose shares are traded on the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ; colloquially known as The Bursa, ) is Israel's only public stock exchange and a public company that has been traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange since August 1, 2019. Legally, the exchange is regulated by ...

and is included in the TA-100 Index. It is controlled by the Hamburger family, which owns 49.9% of the company's shares (mainly through a holding company), while the public holds 50.1%.

History

In 1935, Ernst and Margot Hamburger,

German Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

who moved to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

at the time of the

British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...

founded HaMishmar, a small insurance agency. In 1975, the family established their first insurance company "Harel". In 1982 Harel Insurance and Finances (then known as Harel Hamishmar Investments Ltd.), was established and the ownership of Harel and Hamishmar were transferred to its ownership. The same year, the company had an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on the

. During the 1980s and 1990s the company acquired a number of other insurance companies in Israel (including: Sahar, Zion, Shiloach and Dikla) and consolidated its position to become Israel's third largest insurance group. During the 2000s the company expanded its activities and entered the pension and

mutual funds A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV ...

markets. In 2007, the name of the company was changed to "Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd.". In 2008 Harel Group established the Israel Infrastructure Fund together with Yehuda Raveh and Yaron Kestenbaum, which invests in and manages infrastructure projects in the fields of water, energy and transportation (trains and roads). In December 2009 Harel acquired EMI, an Israeli mortgage unit of AIG –

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

for $35.5m.

References

{{TA 100 companies

External links

Harel Group
Financial services companies established in 1935 Insurance companies of Israel Financial services companies of Israel Companies based in Ramat Gan

History

See also

References

External links