American hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman is scheduled to visit Israel this week.
Ackman, 59, one of the most prominent and influential figures in the U.S. capital market, has been a staunch and vocal supporter of the Jewish state in the nearly two-year-old war against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The investment manager, who holds a 5% stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), will ring the opening bell of the Tel Aviv market on Tuesday morning, and will also address the TechTrek conference of international investment bank Jefferies, Israel’s largest institutional investor technology conference.
Last year, the billionaire investor and his Israeli-born wife, Neri Oxman, spent $25 million for an equity stake of around 4.9% in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
The Tel Aviv stock market has risen 65% since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in a sign of Israeli resilience and the improved geo-strategic situation in the region.
The stock market rally and record highs, which continued this week, have been attributed to a confluence of events led by the dramatic improvement in the geostrategic situation, even as the war against Hamas continues.
A special opening bell ceremony will be held at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Ackman’s honor, with TASE CEO Ittai Ben Zeev and the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority, Seffy Zinger.
Ackman, who runs the highly respected New York-based hedge-fund Pershing Square Capital Management, became an increasingly vocal voice for Israel in the financial world after the Oct. 7 attack, and also came out strongly against the rampant antisemitism at Harvard University and its past president, who subsequently resigned.
