Phoenix’s sharp share-price rally has benefited not only shareholders and senior management, but also thousands of rank-and-file employees who received restricted stock units under the company’s collective agreement. Over the past 12 months, Phoenix stock jumped 139% and the insurer’s market value rose to about 42 billion shekels, the highest in Israel’s insurance sector.
In June 2025, Phoenix granted about 781,000 RSUs to employees at the company and several other group units under an agreement signed with the workers’ representatives. The deal covers about 2,500 of Phoenix Group’s roughly 5,000 employees. The RSUs vest in three equal annual installments over three years. As the stock climbed further, the package’s total value reached about 125 million shekels, and the first third, which vested at the end of last week, was worth about 42 million shekels.
But the windfall did not include everyone in the group. Workers at Gamma, Phoenix’s nonbank credit subsidiary, were excluded from the arrangement and have so far missed out on millions of shekels. Gamma provides financing for small and medium-sized businesses, had an end-2025 loan portfolio of about 5 billion shekels, and employed about 230 people and managers, including IT staff and external service providers, according to Phoenix’s periodic report.
Phoenix first bought 49% of Gamma in January 2008 at a valuation of about 130 million shekels, increased its stake to 62% when Gamma went public in June 2021, and completed a full buyout in August 2023 at a valuation of 950 million shekels. The company said Gamma workers are outside the collective agreement because they are not unionized, although there was an earlier effort to organize them through the National Labor Federation that has not yet produced a binding deal. Based on current prices, the exclusion has cost Gamma employees about 11.5 million shekels, including roughly 4 million shekels from the first vested tranche. The stock rally also boosted senior executives, with CEO Eyal Ben Simons holding Phoenix shares worth 11 million shekels and Chairman Beni Gabbay holding about 22 million shekels.
