As per a press release issued by the exchange on Wednesday, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and his spouse Neri Oxman are purchasing about 5% of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
This news coincided with the Israeli stock exchange announcing the pricing of a secondary sale of 17,156,677 shares, or 18.5% of the company’s market value, at 20.60 shekels ($5.50) per share. This means that Ackman and his spouse paid $17.3 million for their purchase.
Investors from Israel, the US, Europe, and Australia showed considerable interest in the transaction, which the statement said was a “strong vote of confidence in both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the Israeli economy at large.”
“Among the notable purchasers were Neri Oxman and Bill Ackman, who have committed to acquiring around a 4.9% ownership share in the TASE.” Additionally, it stated that the exchange intends “to use the net proceeds from this offering for investment in its technology infrastructure.”
Since the terror incident on 7 October by Hamas, which led to an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Ackman, the CEO and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management in New York, has been an outspoken advocate for Israel. Neri Oxman, his spouse, is an Israeli-American Professor and designer of architecture.
Source (CNBC)
