“Purchasing ownership of a stock exchange in a country with tremendous potential for long-term growth is one of the best investments that can be made,” American Jewish billionaire Bill Ackman and his wife Neri Oxman told Globes. This is after Ackman and Oxman purchased about 5% of the shares of the stock exchange for about NIS 100 million. “Investing in the stock exchange in Tel Aviv, of the ‘startup nation’ is exactly that. It represents our support for Israel and our confidence in its economy and its long-term growth,” he told Globes.
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The shares were purchased as part of the sale of 18.5% of the stock market shares held by local banks, mainly to foreign investors as well as to local investors.
First investment in Israel
For Ekman, as far as is known, this is his first investment in an Israeli company. The person who closed the deal with him on Tuesday evening (Israel time) was Jefferies Bank, which served as the banker for the sale abroad. This was in a meeting that took place, Globes learned, at Ackman’s offices in New York, with the participation of the CEO of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Itai Ben Wolf.
A source close to the stock exchange stated in a conversation with Globes that “Akman’s name comes up in every presentation that is held for foreign investors, but we didn’t really estimate that he would invest. But in meeting with him, he surprised, and decided to invest his own money, and a lot of it.”
Ackman is not expected to become an interested party (he owns about 4.9% of the shares) or join the board of the stock exchange. “The move was made mainly out of a desire to express support for Israel, and also because he liked the company,” said a senior official in the market, “and this has a positive signal for the value of the stock.”
According to another source, “This is a significant expression of confidence in the local stock exchange and the Israeli economy, and precisely in this period of the war, it is a Zionist act. There are not many institutions that are so identified with the State of Israel as the stock exchange, which are also traded companies that can be invested in.”
The Israeli entities that also purchased
In total, for 18.5% of the stock exchange’s shares, a consideration of approximately NIS 353 million was received (according to a price of NIS 20.6 per share). Most of the proceeds from the sale flowed to the stock exchange itself (NIS 242 million) and the balance to the selling banks. Globes learned that among the Israeli buyers were the Nokd hedge fund, owned by Roi Vermos and Shlomi Bracha, and the insurance companies Migdal, Menorah Mivathim and Kelal. The market estimates that Migdal purchased approximately 2% of the stock market shares for NIS 40 million and that Shkol purchased less than 1% of the stock market shares.
The exchange stated that the proceeds will be used “for the development and improvement of the local capital market”.
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