BANK HAPOALIM
Profits at Bank Hapoalim have soared in the past three years, based on a clear strategy for achieving sustained long-term growth based on international expansion, increasing its stake in Israel’s retail sector and expanding its corporate and treasury activities. In 2005, Hapoalim outpaced its competitors with a 38% rise in net profits and a significant improvement in RoE to 20% from 15.2% the previous year.
In 2005, the implementation of a value-based management system and closer integration of treasury activities in New York and London, in a global approach to treasury, helped to boost results from trading, sales and asset liability management.
The bank has embarked on an international growth strategy centred on global private banking and the development of new international market opportunities. Recent acquisitions include Bank of New York – Inter-Maritime Bank, based in Geneva, and C-Bank in Turkey, which, as Bank Pozitif, was primarily a corporate bank that Hapoalim plans to turn into a full-service commercial bank.
The bank’s New York branch has acquired Investec (US) and renamed it Hapoalim Securities, thereby giving it a complete broker/dealer platform and enhancing the range of investment services provided to both private and institutional clients. Hapoalim has also launched an American depository receipt programme in the US, enabling American investors to purchase shares in the bank by purchasing a US security. The bank’s overall strategy is to identify international opportunities, with the long-term goal of deriving 30% of its revenue and profits from international activities.
