Keren Cohen Hazon, CEO of Thorpez, said the company’s growth strategy combines mergers and acquisitions with organic expansion. Speaking on a panel moderated by Calcalist’s Almog Azar at the Calcalist and Migdal Financial Future conference, she said growth should not rely on a single path. Roni Zakai, head of alternative investments at Migdal, also took part in the discussion.
Cohen Hazon presented Thorpez Industries as a global manufacturer of flavor, fragrance and specialty raw materials, saying the products are used in everyday life. She said the company buys businesses in its core fields, in adjacent technologies, in new geographies, or to deepen existing markets. She said the biggest challenge in cross-border acquisitions is cultural differences, and that Thorpez has 30 years of industry experience and conducts due diligence before every deal.
Asked about exchange-rate pressures, she said Thorpez is based in Israel and employs hundreds of workers there, but its global footprint of 30 factories makes the shekel-dollar effect on the Israeli business relatively limited. She added that any difficulty in Israel affects the company as well. On cultural integration, she said expectations must be aligned, citing different norms in Israel and France, and said success requires learning local traditions and values. She also said many target companies are rejected because they are not the right fit, even if they are good businesses, and that every acquisition is an art that requires a long-term partner-like approach.
Zakai said alternative investments diversify and complement liquid portfolios, including direct lending, private funds, real estate and infrastructure. She said the large institutional players are best equipped for these deals because they require specialized teams, significant resources and are harder to sell quickly. She said alternative investments make up about 30 percent of Migdal’s policyholder portfolio and 30 percent of its free proprietary portfolio, but with a different mix, with the proprietary book leaning more toward direct credit, debt funds and infrastructure.
On retail investors entering private markets, Zakai said their needs differ from institutions and that open-ended structures can change market dynamics by bringing in money quickly and then prompting fast withdrawals during panic. Cohen Hazon closed by saying, “You do not build industry in quick rounds or spurts,” adding that Thorpez aims to become larger and more global through gradual, persistent expansion after years marked by COVID-19, wars and shorter investor patience.
