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(Bloomberg) – Bill Ackman and his wife Neri Oxman have bought shares in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, one of the most prominent investments in Israel since the outbreak of the war with Hamas.
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Mr. Ackman, 57, who has decried the rise in anti-Semitism since the Hamas attack and subsequent Israeli retaliation, and Mr. Oxman will buy a 5% stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The transaction is part of the sale of approximately 18.5% of the company’s stake to foreign and local investors. For 353 million shekels ($95 million), the couple paid $25 million, according to Bloomberg calculations.
The deal is the latest high-profile move by the hedge fund billionaire, who in recent months has become increasingly vocal in the U.S. culture wars, including anti-Semitism in the media and on college campuses. They are also speaking out against the way diversity programs are run. . Although this struck a nerve on the political left, he won much praise from conservative activists, members of the Jewish community, and even Elon Musk.
For Israel, the deal is another sign that foreign investors who withdrew their funds at the start of the war are returning to Israel. Ittai Ben-Ziv, the stock exchange’s chief executive, said the stock sale had received “significant interest from domestic and international investors, including large investors who have not yet invested in Israel.” said.
Mr. Ackman and Mr. Oxman were the only investors named in a statement detailing the sale, and the sale price was a 2% discount to the stock’s last closing price.
The stock exchange’s stock price rose as much as 9.4%, putting it on track to erase all war-related losses. The stock had fallen 3% since the start of the war by Tuesday’s close, underperforming its global peers. Saudi Tadawul Group Holding, Deutsche Börse and London Stock Exchange Group all rose at least 12% over the same period.
Harvard University graduate
Ackman, a Harvard graduate who founded Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004, has a personal net worth of $2.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr. Ackman has for decades established himself as an arbiter of how public companies should behave, and is known for his shareholder activism, including an ill-fated short-selling campaign in Herbalife Nutrition. He told investors that in 2022 he will take a “quieter approach”.
Mr. Ackman remains the fund’s final decision maker, but is acting as chief investment officer. His fund’s structure is unusual in the hedge fund world, meaning it doesn’t have to cater to big-money investors like a typical manager.
At the same time, he’s pushing hot topics and opining on Platform X with the same intensity that defined his career on Wall Street.
His investment in Israel comes on the heels of a campaign directed at Harvard’s leadership, which has failed to eradicate anti-Semitism on campus. Claudine Gay, the university’s first black president, ultimately resigned amid Mr. Ackman’s attacks and plagiarism allegations.
Read more: Bill Ackman brings activist strategy to America’s culture wars
Oxman was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. A lieutenant in the Israeli Air Force, she graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.
According to a recent report from Business Insider, she plagiarized multiple paragraphs from her 2010 doctoral thesis. Oxman responded to the outlet’s accusations, saying that in her 330-page paper she “omitted quotation marks for certain studies” but that she cited other authors appropriately.
Mr. Ackman has accused the site of running a “campaign to destroy” his wife, but Business Insider’s chief executive said the organization stands behind the report.
Read more: Why the war between Israel and Hamas infuriates university leaders: QuickTake
–With assistance from Dana Khraiche and Farah Elbahrawy.
(Changed heading and updated details throughout. A previous version of this article was corrected to correct the value and discount of the shares sold.)
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