Buying stocks on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: TASE) has proven to be a very successful investment in the past few years, much more so than on its major indices, or on any other exchange. The stock price of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which is among the stocks that make up the Tel Aviv 125 Index, gives it a market value of more than NIS 4 billion. Whoever invests in it a year ago, his money will double. Anyone who did this five years ago made a return of 332%. Anyone who invested in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange flotation in 2019 made a return of nearly 600%.
And there are those who have gained more. For example, the hedge fund Manikay Partners, headed by Shane Fenmore. Manikay Partners is currently the largest shareholder of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, in which it does not have a controlling position. It bought 20% of the company’s shares in August 2018 for 110 million shekels, at a valuation of only 550 million shekels. This was part of a move by Tel Aviv Stock Exchange CEO Itai Ben-Zeev to remove most of the company’s shares from banks and transfer them to foreign shareholders and to the Israeli public.
Last Thursday, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange announced that it would buy 4.82% of its own shares from Manikay Partners for NIS 202 million. The company stated that it had initiated the purchase “taking into account the date on which the Manikai Fund was established and the normal period of activity of investment funds of this type.”
By selling part of its holdings, Manikay Partners made an impressive return of eight times the money it invested in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange shares six and a half years ago. It bought the shares at a price of 5.51 shekels per share, and is now selling part of them at a price of 43.79 shekels. As a result of the sale, Manikay Partners’ stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange decreased from 19.3% to 15.2%, with a value of NIS 620 million. Thus, the fund achieves profits of about 700 million shekels on its investment in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, most of which is on paper at the present time.
Not much is known about Manikay Partners. It was previously reported that it specializes in investing in stock markets around the world. The company is incorporated in the United States and has its offices in New York. It holds its shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange through a fund called Manikay Global Opportunities, which reported assets worth NIS 403 million to US authorities last year.
The mystery surrounding Manikay Partners increases when one visits its website, which looks as if it has not been updated in a long time. The site mainly publishes the investment deal on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company’s investment strategy is described as “focusing on long-term return for its investors, using an opportunistic approach to investing.”
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Manikay Partners was founded by Shane Fenmore, an Australian described in US filings as the firm’s managing partner and chief investment officer. The other partner is Salah Saabna (56 years old), an Israeli citizen residing in the United States, and works as director of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. He holds a first degree in law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a corresponding degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.
Finemore, 55, founded the company in 2008. He is described on his LinkedIn profile as having thirty years of experience in financial markets in Australia, the US and the UK, in “multi-strategy trading, arbitrage and investing”. Prior to founding Manikay Partners, Finemore worked in various roles at the Australian branch of UBS. He holds a first degree in Commerce, Accounting and Finance from the University of New South Wales.
In an article published in “Globes” at the time of Manikay Partners’ investment in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, it was mentioned that one of the prominent investors in the company was the Australian businessman Sir Frank Lowy (90). Louie, a Holocaust survivor, lived in Israel and fought in the War of Independence in the Golani Brigade. He later moved to Australia and founded the global shopping mall company Westfield Corporation, which was sold to France’s Unibail-Rodamco in 2018 in a $16 billion deal. Forbes magazine estimates Lowe’s net worth at $6.5 billion.
It was mentioned in the same article that Manikay Partners raised $300 million the year it was founded. The identities of current investors in the company or the size of Lowe’s investment (if any) cannot be verified. When it was founded, it was reported to manage $2-2.5 billion in assets, but, as we mentioned, according to filings in the US last year, one of the funds it manages has assets of just over $400 million. According to reports in the UK, the Manikay Partners partnership there was dissolved in August 2021.
CEO Ben Zeev owns shares worth NIS 147 million
In addition to Manikai Partners, another party interested in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is a fund affiliated with the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. Before the sale of shares by Manikay Partners, the fund owned an 8.2% stake in the company worth NIS 330 million. The other party involved is the company’s CEO Ben Zeev, who owns a 3.57% stake worth NIS 147 million.
One well-known investor in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is US-based hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who along with his wife Neri Oxman bought about 5% of the company’s shares in January last year for an estimated NIS 100 million. Since when did the share double in value? This purchase was part of the distribution of 18.5% of shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange held by local banks to foreign investors led by investment bank Jefferies.
In the first nine months of 2024, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange generated revenues of NIS 322 million, 12% higher than in the corresponding period of 2023. The company’s revenues are mainly derived from trading and clearing commissions, which grew by 8% in the first nine months. From 2024. Nine months of last year compared to the same period in 2023.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s fastest-growing revenue stream in that period was derived from information distribution and communication services, which grew by 29% in a year to NIS 68 million, as the number and price of licenses to use its indexes rose. Operating profits before financing income increased by 26% to 93 million shekels, and net profit increased by 22% to 76 million shekels.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on January 13, 2025.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
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