Altshuler Shaham: How Two Portfolio Managers Built Israel's Largest Provident Fund Company — Then Lost the Crown to Meitav
NIS 197B AUM, 2.3M clients, founded 1990 by Gilad Altshuler and Kalman Shaham. Was #1 provident fund company until Dec 2025 when Meitav overtook it.
Altshuler Shaham is the investment house that grew faster than any competitor in Israeli financial history — from a two-person portfolio management office in 1990 to approximately NIS 197 billion in assets under management for 2.3 million clients. TASE: ALTF. Headquartered at 19 HaBarzel Street, Ramat HaHayal, Tel Aviv. Over 1,000 employees.
Founded in 1990 by Gilad Altshuler and Kalman Shaham. Altshuler started with a small portfolio management business; Shaham, then a senior manager at a financial company, joined shortly after. Together they built what became the largest provident fund company in Israel by market share — until December 2025, when Meitav overtook it following sustained net outflows.
The firm sits in the institutional layer between the Big Five insurance groups — Harel, Migdal, Phoenix, Clal, Menora Mivtachim — and the smaller boutique managers. It is the largest pure-play investment house, meaning it does not carry underwriting insurance risk.
How the 2005 Bachar Reform Created the Vacuum Altshuler Shaham Filled
The 2005 Bachar Committee reform forced Israel's banks — Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim, Mizrahi Tefahot, Israel Discount Bank, and First International — to divest their asset management arms. The structural vacuum that followed was the single largest opportunity in the history of Israeli institutional capital.
Altshuler Shaham filled it. The divestiture created a newly competitive market with massive demand for non-bank managers with strong performance records. Billions of shekels in provident and pension capital flowed toward independent managers — and Altshuler Shaham, with a fifteen-year track record of high-conviction portfolio management, captured more of that flow than any competitor.
The growth was performance-driven. The firm consistently ranked among the top-performing provident and pension managers in Israel across multiple time horizons. The Altshuler Shaham brand became synonymous with aggressive, high-conviction investment management in a market that had been dominated by conservative bank-affiliated incumbents for decades. Where the bank-run provident funds had optimized for stability and regulatory compliance, Altshuler Shaham optimized for returns — and Israeli savers noticed.
The Corporate Structure Behind NIS 197 Billion
Altshuler Shaham Finance Ltd. is the publicly traded entity within the group, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since 2019 (restructured 2022). Altshuler Shaham Provident Funds and Pension Ltd. — formerly the listed entity — became a private company fully owned by Altshuler Shaham Finance as part of the restructuring.
The product shelf: provident funds, pension funds, study funds, mutual funds, managed investment portfolios, and alternative investment management and distribution. The firm became a TASE member in 2023, adding direct trading execution through Altshuler Shaham Trade — a move TASE CEO Ittai Ben Zeev publicly endorsed as a step toward increased capital market competition.
Leadership: Yair Levinstein, CEO of Altshuler Shaham Finance (~30 years in capital markets). Ran Shaham (son of co-founder Kalman Shaham), Joint CEO. Gilad Altshuler, Owner and Joint CEO — has been managing portfolios for over 30 years, specializing in stocks, bonds, and options. Kalman Shaham, Owner and Active Director. Lea Preminger, VP Investments. Shay Yaron, CEO of mutual funds and head of portfolio management client division. Anat Knafo Tavor, CEO of Altshuler Shaham Provident Funds and Pension. Chen Altshuler, Head of Innovation.
The iCapital Partnership and the Push Into Alternative Investments
Altshuler Shaham partnered with iCapital Network — the New York-based fintech powering the global alternative investment marketplace — to distribute private equity, private credit, real estate, and hedge fund products to Israeli wealth managers. The partnership made Altshuler Shaham the first Israeli distributor of iCapital's institutional-grade alternative product shelf.
The alternative investment push reflected a broader trend across Israel's institutional capital sector: pension and provident capital seeking yield beyond TASE-listed equities and government bonds. Allocation to international alternatives has grown as a percentage of total AUM across every Israeli investment house. Altshuler Shaham's iCapital partnership was a bet that distribution access — not just performance — would differentiate the firm in the next competitive cycle.
The firm also invested alongside other major Israeli institutional players: in a notable 2025 transaction, Altshuler Shaham participated in a NIS 1.1 billion share acquisition alongside Clal Insurance and More Investment House.
December 2025: Losing the #1 Position to Meitav After Years of Net Outflows
In December 2025, Meitav overtook Altshuler Shaham as the largest provident fund company in Israel by AUM — NIS 130.8 billion to Altshuler Shaham's declining position. The reversal followed sustained net outflows from Altshuler Shaham over several years — a pattern that eroded the market-share lead the firm had held since the post-Bachar growth wave.
The loss of the #1 position was the most significant competitive shift in the Israeli investment house sector since the Bachar reform itself. It demonstrated that in the provident and pension market, performance alone does not guarantee retention — client experience, fee transparency, digital tools, and distribution relationships all compound over time. Altshuler Shaham had built its franchise on investment returns. Meitav built on platform breadth — brokerage, credit, alternatives, trading, and a retail client experience that resonated with a younger generation of Israeli savers.
As of the most recent reported data, total AUM across the Altshuler Shaham group is approximately NIS 197 billion. The competitive pressure from Meitav, Harel, Phoenix, and the expanding non-bank managers remains the defining strategic challenge for the firm's next decade.
Where Altshuler Shaham Sits in the Israeli Institutional Capital Stack
The investment decisions made by Altshuler Shaham's portfolio managers affect the valuation of TASE-listed companies and the allocation of Israeli savings capital globally. With NIS 197 billion under management, the firm's buy and sell decisions move markets — particularly in mid-cap Israeli equities where institutional flows are the primary price-setting mechanism.
Altshuler Shaham's competitive set is now defined by the question of what it wants to be: a pure-play asset manager competing on returns, or a diversified financial platform competing on breadth. Meitav chose breadth — brokerage, credit, alternatives, trading. Altshuler Shaham has begun moving in the same direction with the TASE membership and iCapital partnership, but the gap in platform breadth is real and widening.
The firm remains one of the most consequential capital allocators in the Israeli economy. NIS 197 billion in managed assets, 2.3 million clients, and a 35-year track record make Altshuler Shaham a permanent fixture of the Israeli institutional landscape — even if the crown has moved to Bnei Brak.
