Financial institutions in talks to buy Hot businesses

Communications and media company Hot has been on the shelf for the past year, and several financial institutions are now in talks to buy the company’s television business, among them Migdal, Clal Insurance, and Bank Hapoalim’s investment platform Poalim Equity. Representatives of the companies have held meetings with Hot CEO Tal Granot-Goldstein, and are now examining the company’s activity. The value of Hot’s television, electricity, and internet activity and its business division is estimated at NIS 2 billion, along with debt of about NIS 1 billion. It was reported in the past that Hot’s owner, Patrick Drahi’s Altice, was seeking to sell the group for €2 billion.

The financial institutions see a significant opportunity in the communications market here. Hot is the only major Israeli communications company that Is not public, and it could generate upside if it is floated. Access to the communications market is narrow, and in recent years almost every substantial deal in the sector has featured a former senior executive in it who led the move. Besides that, a new opportunity has arisen in the past year. It was the case that the group was large and extended over many activities, making a deal expensive and very complicated. Now, the company is being sold in parts, which allows for more focused deals.

Last year, Cellcom, Hot, and the Israel Infrastructure Fund completed the sale of their holdings in the IBC fiber-optic venture. Each company sold holdings worth some NIS 520 million, and the total value of the deal was NIS 1.56 billion for 70% of the shares. The venture was valued at NIS 2.1 billion. In addition, in January this year, Delek Israel signed an MOU for the purchase of Hot Mobile for NIS 1.88 billion. It was recently reported in “Globes” that infrastructure investment fund Keystone Infra was in talks to join the venture, and that there were disputes between the sides over the joint control mechanisms.

These deals mean that Hot’s remaining activities are now priced differently from the way they were at the start of the process. The opportunity that has been created is for the acquisition of the company without the mobile telephony activity and without the holding in IBC, alongside other sales that reduce the size of the deal. Hot is currently the second largest media group in Israel, and is estimated to have some 750,000 television subscribers, via cable and Internet.

Like the rest of the market, Hot too is acting to transfer its customers to Internet services, despite the many difficulties that have arisen in the process. To accomplish it, the company has to make significant investment in infrastructure, leading to additional costs.

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The deal being formulated is a management buyout, in which the existing management buys a controlling slice of the business, with the aim of ensuring management continuity. In the past few months the names of several former industry executives have been mentioned in the context of the deal, among them Ran Guron, formerly CEO of Bezeq, who was involved in the Delek Israel-Hot Mobile deal.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 11, 2026.

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