Bezeq has no controlling shareholder for the first time in its history. Cellcom is controlled by an Israeli private equity fund. Partner answers to Haim Saban. Hot is up for sale. The ownership map of Israel's telecom sector, current as of September 2026.
Israel's four major telecom groups have four different ownership structures right now, and one of them just changed in a way that hasn't happened before: Bezeq, the country's largest telecom company, has no controlling shareholder. That's new. Cellcom is controlled by an Israeli private equity fund. Partner Communications answers to Haim Saban's Saban Capital Group. And Hot, the cable and mobile group, is currently for sale by its French-Israeli owner. Here is who actually controls each one.
Bezeq: Israel's Largest Telecom Now Has No Controlling Shareholder
Bezeq (TASE: BEZQ) is Israel's dominant fixed-line, fiber, and broadband operator, and the parent of Pelephone (mobile) and Yes (satellite television), both wholly owned subsidiaries. For most of Bezeq's modern history it had a clear controlling shareholder: Shaul Elovitch's Eurocom group until a 2018 bribery investigation forced him out, then a consortium led by US private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners and Israeli businessman David Fuhrer, who took control in 2019 through the holding company B Communications (Bcom), which held roughly 26% of Bezeq.
That changed in December 2025, when Bcom sold its entire remaining stake in Bezeq, roughly NIS 2.7 billion (about $860 million) in the largest secondary block trade in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange history, to a wide group of Israeli and global institutional investors. Bezeq's chairman, Tomer Raved, has said the company is now managed without a controlling shareholder for the first time, following a similar shift at insurer Phoenix roughly eighteen months earlier. Bezeq's own periodic filings had already flagged Clal, Harel, and Migdal each crossing the 5% disclosure threshold as far back as October 2023, and those three insurers remain among the largest holders following the Bcom sale.
The shift matters beyond the ownership chart. Under the terms of the sale, Searchlight's Bezeq board representatives, including chairman-designate Darren Glatt, stepped down, while Raved remained in his operating role to continue what Searchlight described as a value-creation program that roughly tripled Bezeq's market value since the 2019 takeover. With no controlling shareholder, Bezeq's board must now navigate governance decisions, including the long-running push to dismantle the regulatory "structural separation" between its fixed-line, mobile, and satellite-TV units, without a single dominant voice steering the outcome. Raved has publicly argued the change is a strength: a widely held company, he says, can move faster on bundling and infrastructure investment because no single shareholder's exit timeline or leverage constraints dictate strategy.
Cellcom: Owned by an Israeli Private Equity Fund Since 2024
Cellcom Israel (NYSE/TASE: CEL), the country's largest mobile operator by subscribers and owner of budget carrier Golan Telecom, was long controlled by Discount Investment Corporation (DIC), part of the IDB Holding group. DIC agreed in December 2023 to sell its roughly 35.7% controlling stake to Fortissimo Capital, an Israeli private equity fund managed by Yuval Cohen, in a deal valuing Cellcom at about NIS 2.6 billion ($700 million), an 18-20% premium to Cellcom's market price at the time. The transaction closed in mid-2024 after clearing Israeli competition, electricity-authority, and communications-ministry approvals. Before the deal, Cellcom reported roughly 3.5 million mobile subscribers and a 31% domestic market share, with a fiber-optic network reaching about two million households.
DIC itself has since changed hands: a court approved the sale of roughly 82% of DIC to a group led by Mega Or Holdings, controlled by Zahi Nahmias, in a restructuring tied to defaulted bonds held by IDB Development Corporation, DIC's own former parent. That sale does not directly affect Fortissimo's Cellcom stake, but it illustrates how thoroughly the old IDB conglomerate structure that once anchored Cellcom's ownership has been dismantled over the past decade.
Partner Communications: Still a Saban Company
Partner Communications (Nasdaq/TASE: PTNR), which operates under the Orange brand in Israel, has been controlled since 2012 and 2013 by SB Israel Telecom, an affiliate of Haim Saban's Saban Capital Group, which holds roughly 30% of the company's shares and voting rights after acquiring the stake from Ilan Ben-Dov's Scailex Corporation and, in a smaller tranche, from Bank Leumi's investment arm, per Wikipedia's entry on Partner Communications Company. Saban, the Egyptian-born Israeli-American media and entertainment investor best known for Power Rangers and a prior stake in Univision, has held the Partner stake for well over a decade with no signal of a near-term sale. Saban Capital Group had also been an investor in Bezeq itself between 2005 and 2010, giving Saban a long, if intermittent, footprint across Israeli telecom ownership.
Hot: Patrick Drahi's Israeli Asset, Currently for Sale
Hot Telecommunication Systems, Israel's main cable operator and owner of Hot Mobile, has been wholly owned by Altice International, the telecom empire of French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, since he completed a takeover in 2011 and delisted the company in 2012. As of late 2025, Altice confirmed it had received an acquisition offer for Hot from one of its Israeli competitors, as Drahi continues selling down assets across his heavily indebted Altice group. The pressure is real: Altice France reached a deal with creditors in February 2025 to cut roughly €8.6 billion of debt out of a total €24 billion, and Altice has separately weighed selling a controlling stake in French mobile operator SFR for as much as €30 billion including debt. Separately, Hot agreed in mid-2025 to sell its 23% stake in fiber-optic joint venture IBC to a consortium of Israeli financial institutions, a deal originally worth about €45.4 million when Hot first acquired the stake in 2021. Drahi himself moved his personal tax residency from Switzerland to Israel in late 2024, filing a corporate address in central Tel Aviv, and continues to control Hot day to day pending any sale.
The Map, at a Glance
| Company | Controlling Owner | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Bezeq | No controlling shareholder; largest holders are Israeli pension and insurance funds (Harel, Clal, Migdal) | December 2025 |
| Cellcom | Fortissimo Capital (Israeli private equity, Yuval Cohen), ~35.7% | 2024 |
| Partner Communications | Saban Capital Group (Haim Saban), via SB Israel Telecom, ~30% | 2012 to 2013 |
| Hot | Altice International (Patrick Drahi), 100%, currently marketed for sale | 2011 to 2012 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Bezeq in 2026?
No single shareholder controls Bezeq as of the end of 2025, after B Communications sold its entire 26%-plus stake in December 2025. The largest remaining holders are Israeli institutional investors, including Harel, Clal, and Migdal pension and insurance arms.
Who owns Pelephone?
Pelephone is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bezeq, and its ownership follows Bezeq's, currently no controlling shareholder.
Is Cellcom still controlled by Discount Investment Corporation?
No. Discount Investment Corporation sold its roughly 35.7% controlling stake to Fortissimo Capital in a deal that closed in 2024. DIC itself has since been sold on to a group led by Mega Or Holdings.
Why is Hot for sale?
Owner Patrick Drahi has been selling assets across his global Altice telecom empire to reduce debt that has grown into the tens of billions of euros, following a 2025 restructuring of Altice France's debt and a separate review of selling SFR.
Sources
Searchlight Capital Partners press release, December 2025; Calcalist, December 2025 (Bezeq no-controlling-shareholder remarks); Bezeq periodic filing, investor relations (Nov. 2023); Globes, Cellcom-Fortissimo deal terms; Wikipedia, Partner Communications Company; Bloomberg, Altice/Hot sale reporting (Aug. 2025); Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Patrick Drahi profile.