Alma Yesodot in the First Quarter: Sagsoget Increases the Need for Parent-Level Cash Receipts

Alma Yesodot did not report a quarter that changes the 2025 story. It reported a quarter that sharpens it: the company is already building a real operating portfolio, but cash receipts at the parent have not yet caught up with acquisitions and commitments. The NIS 1.1 million net loss is not the most important number here. The more important point is that the company entered the quarter with a comfortable cash position, ended it with about NIS 90 million of liquidity, and then signed an agreement after the balance-sheet date to acquire 60% of Sagsoget for NIS 54 million. Against that, actual receipts from portfolio companies in the quarter were only NIS 2.2 million, mainly from Green Coat, while Triple transferred no cash to Alma in the quarter and Dvir moved to a loss because of project delays. The positive side is that Triple gave a stronger operating proof point through the shift to bilateral power sales, and Dvir received a consideration adjustment and payment deferral that reduce near-term pressure. Still, after the prior analysis on parent-level cash, the proof point remains the same: the next quarters need to show normal cash receipts from Triple, Green Coat, High Lift and Dvir, and the Sagsoget acquisition needs to close without turning current liquidity into bridge funding only.

The portfolio is growing, but the parent is still waiting for cash

The company is no longer a shell that was given a new activity. It is an operating investment company in the early stages of building a group. It holds an indirect 18.14% stake in Triple, which owns 84% of the IPM power plant in Be'er Tuvia, 33.33% of High Lift, 60% of Green Coat, 70% of Dvir, and after the balance-sheet date signed an agreement to acquire 60% of Sagsoget. This is not a purely passive holding company: it buys operating businesses, charges management fees, works on operational improvement, and tries to build an industrial and infrastructure group that can upstream cash.

In this model, acquisitions, debt, pledges and timing gaps between accounting profit and cash are normal. Debt or a new acquisition is not an edge by itself. The abnormal point in the first quarter is the combination of three things: very low quarterly receipts relative to the annual forecast, a new acquisition that is large relative to the parent cash base, and one central asset, Triple, that is improving operationally but did not transfer cash to Alma during the quarter.

The right read for this type of holding company does not stop at the fair value of assets. The question is how much of that value actually reaches public shareholders after debt, dividends, acquisitions, credit lines and minority layers. In this quarter, Triple's fair value moved slightly higher, liquidity remains high, and the company has comfortable covenant headroom. But the pace at which the portfolio generates recurring upstream cash is still not enough to make 2026 a full proof year.

Quarterly receipts are still far from the full-year forecast

The number that frames the quarter is NIS 2.2 million. That is the total amount Alma received from portfolio companies in the first three months of 2026, compared with an annual forecast of NIS 34.0 million and NIS 46.2 million in 2025. Green Coat transferred NIS 2.05 million in the quarter, including NIS 1.8 million of dividends and NIS 254 thousand of management fees, and Dvir transferred NIS 150 thousand of management fees. Triple and High Lift did not transfer cash in the quarter.

A quarterly number should not be turned into a full-year forecast too quickly. Receipts from portfolio companies can arrive unevenly. But in a quarter in which the company approves a NIS 5.5 million dividend, carries about NIS 126.8 million of financial debt, and later signs a NIS 54 million acquisition, the timing of receipts becomes material information rather than noise.

Liquidity is still comfortable. At the end of March the company had NIS 83.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, and the presentation shows about NIS 90 million of liquid balances including deposits and marketable securities. Parent-level cash was about NIS 78.3 million, and a NIS 40 million credit facility was still unused. Bond covenants are also far from stress: LTV of 49.7% versus a 72.5% ceiling, equity of NIS 278.8 million versus a NIS 75 million minimum, and an equity-to-balance-sheet ratio of 51.8% versus a 27% minimum.

Still, this flexibility is also built on debt and pledged assets, not only on free cash accumulating from operations. The bonds are secured by Triple shares and pledged shareholder loans, and the new credit facility is a growth tool meant for acquisitions or further portfolio buildout. That is why all-in cash flexibility after actual cash uses should be assessed together with acquisitions, dividends and actual receipts, not only through the cash balance at quarter-end.

Dvir and Sagsoget build a metal platform with transition costs

The industrial activity is where the quarter looks most mixed. Green Coat continued to perform well on revenue, but did not improve profit at the same pace. Revenue rose to NIS 27.9 million from NIS 26.0 million in the comparable quarter, mainly because of demand from defense customers and a broader product offering, but comprehensive net profit was almost unchanged at NIS 4.57 million. Wage and energy-cost inflation absorbed part of the growth before it reached profit.

Dvir provided the weaker side of the quarter. Revenue was NIS 7.0 million and the company recorded a NIS 1.1 million net loss. The business explanation matters: restrictions on work at height, the need to stay close to protected spaces and damage to several southern plants caused delays and postponements in work and projects. This may be temporary pressure, but it still means the newest operating acquisition in the portfolio has not yet proven stable cash generation.

Here a smaller detail matters more than a standard acquisition footnote. In the Dvir transaction, the original consideration included a second payment of NIS 9.21 million after two years plus 5.5% annual interest. At the end of March, the company and the seller signed a consent letter that defers that payment by another 15 months without additional interest for that period, and sets a NIS 2.0 million consideration adjustment to be deducted from the second payment. This does not make Dvir a proven acquisition, but it reduces the near-term cash requirement and shows that the seller absorbs part of the gap between the original plan and actual performance.

Sagsoget adds another layer. After the balance-sheet date Alma signed an agreement to acquire 60% of a company engaged in planning, development, manufacturing and metal processing, including casting and machining, for NIS 54 million. At closing, Alma will receive Series A preferred shares that give it priority in dividend distributions up to a cumulative NIS 48.6 million, and a management agreement will entitle it to annual management fees of NIS 720 thousand plus indexation and VAT.

That mechanism matters. The acquisition is not only a future revenue addition or another plant in the group. It is an attempt to create a preferred cash-return channel to the buyer. On the other hand, the deal had not closed as of the report date, it consumes a meaningful amount of capital relative to the parent cash base, and Sagsoget's US subsidiary is not yet material. Sagsoget can improve portfolio quality only if the preferred dividend mechanism becomes actual cash, not just an attractive contractual right.

Triple is improving the power plant, while data centers still require capital and time

Triple remains the asset that carries most of the company's economic value. The stake is carried at a fair value of NIS 229.3 million, compared with NIS 226.8 million at the end of 2025, and Alma recognized a NIS 2.55 million gain from the change in the investment's fair value during the quarter. This is a small move relative to the major 2025 revaluation, but Triple's own results already show a stronger operating story.

Triple's first-quarter revenue rose to NIS 243.9 million from NIS 200.8 million, and net profit jumped to NIS 46.0 million from NIS 3.1 million. The split between revenue sources matters more than the top line: revenue from private customers rose to NIS 118.9 million from NIS 53.2 million, while revenue from the system operator declined to NIS 125.0 million from NIS 147.6 million. As of April 1, 2026, the share of power capacity sold to private customers under bilateral agreements is about 51%, compared with about 36% at the end of 2025.

That is a quality shift, not only a volume shift. The move to private sales shows that Triple is not relying only on the existence of the power plant, but on its ability to change the sales mix and improve IPM's economics. But Alma shareholders still have another layer to cross: no cash was received from Triple in the first quarter, and the 2026 forecast still assumes NIS 16 million from Triple. The operating success at Triple therefore needs to appear later as an actual dividend or cash return to the parent.

The data-center project adds a larger option, but also more complexity. Triple's board approved in February a set of decisions to advance a data-center project on unused Triple land with an estimated investment of about NIS 900 million. Requests for temporary relief related to those decisions were rejected on April 1, 2026, and on April 26, 2026 the request for leave to appeal was dismissed after Blue Square withdrew it. On April 16, 2026 a work commencement order was issued to the contractor and excavation and shoring work began.

This is already more than land with an idea. Still, even after the data-center review, Alma cannot yet mark the project as near-term cash. The timelines presented point to a building permit during the second quarter of 2026 and commercial operation during 2028 for the first 20 MW farm. As of the report date, not all conditions for the building permit had been met, and the company had not disclosed customer terms, financing structure or expected cash flow. The data-center project improves Triple's option layer, but it does not replace the need for current receipts in 2026.

Conclusions

The first quarter leaves Alma with a mixed but clear read. The portfolio is advancing, liquidity is not the problem, and Triple gives a better operating proof point than it had at the end of 2025. On the other hand, the parent did not receive enough cash in the quarter to comfortably fund a dividend, a new acquisition and continued growth all at once. The Sagsoget acquisition may be the right step in building a metal platform, especially because of the preferred dividend mechanism, but it raises the proof requirement: Alma has to show that this is an acquisition that returns cash, not only one that expands the top line.

The main 2-4 quarter hurdle is easy to measure: whether the NIS 34 million of 2026 expected receipts actually arrives, whether Dvir returns to profitability after the weak quarter, whether Sagsoget closes and starts contributing without eroding liquidity, and whether Triple translates its stronger private sales into an actual dividend. The counter-thesis is that the first quarter is mostly a timing distortion: Alma has cash, an unused credit line, comfortable covenants and improving assets, so the receipts may still arrive later in the year. That is a reasonable possibility, but it now needs evidence. The market is likely to focus less on the quarterly loss itself and more on the Sagsoget acquisition, Triple's dividend and whether the data-center project can move from excavation and shoring to a full permit, financing and customer.