POLICY
OCTOBER 2 2022 | Page 2 of 11
The Israeli Insurance, Pension & Finance Newspaper

OUTGOING SHLOMO CEO URI OMID SETTING UP AN INSURANCE COMPANY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PHOENIX AND OREN MIZRACH INSURANCE AGENCY FOUNDER OREN COHEN

Omid will control the company – 60% • The Phoenix’s stake in the new company will be split with the Phoenix holding a 70% stake in the subsidiary company and Oren Cohen holding a 30% stake • With the setting up of the company, Omid is closing a circle, having entered the sector as an insurance agent, and is now setting up an insurance company

On the way to a new elementary insurance agency in Israel, but unlike the previous new entries – the new company, to be named Ofek – will be an agents company and not a direct company. Outgoing Shlomo CEO, Uri Omid, is setting up the insurance company in partnership with the Phoenix and Oren Mizrach insurance agency founder Oren Cohen. The target set by the company is for the first policy being sold in March 2023.

The insurance sector is pleased that for the first time in twenty years an elementary insurance company is being set up which is based on agents. The investment in the new company is estimated at the stage at tens of millions of shekels, with the Phoenix investing 30 million shekels, making it the main investor in the new company.

Omid (the company entrepreneur) will have 60% stake in the company, with 40% held by a subsidiary controlled by the Phoenix. The Phoenix’s stake in the new company will be split with the Phoenix holding a 70% stake in the subsidiary company and Oren Cohen holding the remaining 30% stake. Oren Cohen also holds a 30% stake in Oren Mizrach, in which the Phoenix has a 70% stake.

Sources close to the deal said that the Phoenix’s investment represents a financial equity investment, which is one of the heaviest investment horizons in recent years. Unlike other equity investments made by the Phoenix, it has professional expertise in Ofek’s area of activity – insurance.

The company will not operate as an agents model. The company is relying on the fact that 50% of production in Israel comes from insurance agents. However, the company intends operating from agents in a different manner – with a lot of technology and knowledge, including AI (artificial intelligence) and BI (business intelligence), rapid issuing systems, fast and underwriting and settlement. With the understanding that insurance agents seek to grow with a company according to its founders’ expectations, will know how to settle claims rapidly and carry out fast and efficient underwriting, Ofek will be based on an AI model which places at disposal of the agents for precise underwriting and will assist in speeding up claims settlement times and especially the reimbursements who will be accompanying those growing activity.

The company stresses that there will be no direct activity – “We will not dress up as an insurance agent. We will create the product and the agent will do the selling. The insurance agent will be company’s only customer. We will be investing in him via good technology, intimacy and a policy of not competing with him. In addition, there will be no price discrimination. An agent cannot work with a company with price discrimination, where the agent’s customer can obtain a better price directly or with another agent”.

From Omid’s point of view, this is a closing of a circle, as someone who started out in the sector as an insurance agent, and setting up an insurance company under his control is the next step for him.

Omid said: “As someone who started out in the insurance sector as an insurance agent, I am excited to now be founding ‘Ofek Insurance’, the basis of the success will of course be based on partnership with insurance agents, who have been my business partners over the years. For me personally, it is more than important that the Phoenix, via Oren Investment, are partners in this landmark.

We think differently, believe in agents, and we will be bringing a better service to the insureds and to the agents, using the most advanced technologies in the sector, and Ofek will be a generator of competition, and another alternative for the insureds. All of this is after many years in which no agent-based insurance company has been set up”.