JERUSALEM, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and his Israeli-born wife Neri Oxman have agreed to buy an equity stake of around 4.9% in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), the Israeli bourse said on Wednesday.
The purchase was part of the TASE's secondary offering of 18.5% of its shares, in which it sold 17.2 million shares at 20.60 shekels per share for 353.4 million shekels ($95 million).
The TASE said net proceeds amounted to 242 million shekels after deducting placing commissions and other offering expenses.
The TASE said it intends to use the funds for investment in its technology infrastructure. The offering is expected to close of Jan. 25, it noted.
The transaction, the TASE said, drew interest from investors across Israel, the United States, Europe, and Australia, "reflecting a strong vote of confidence in both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the Israeli economy at large."
But it only mentioned Ackman and Oxman by name as those who had invested. Neither have yet to comment publicly on taking a TASE stake.
Ackman was a critic of Claudine Gay, who resigned as president of Harvard University earlier this month amid allegations of plagiarism and a backlash over her congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.
Ackman, who runs Pershing Square Capital and who has supported Israel in its war in Gaza following the Oct.7 attacks by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, is pressing forward with his efforts to reshape the Ivy League school's governance by backing a bid by four dissident alumni to join its board of overseers.
Jefferies served as sole global placement coordinator with Leader Capital Markets acting as local placement coordinator for Israel. ($1 = 3.7322 shekels) (Reporting by Steven Scheer in Jeruslaem and Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Miral Fahmy)
