Toronto stock exchange seeks to draw Israeli listings
As of April 2017, 6 Israeli companies were listed on TSX and TSXV with a $3 billion total market cap
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Toronto’s Stock Exchange (TSX) and the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) said Monday they have appointed Yossi Boker to head business development in Israel in an effort to draw more Israeli companies to list their shares on the exchange.
Boker will lead TSX’s expansion into “this key market,” said Nick Thadaney, president and CEO, Global Equity Capital Markets, TMX Group, in a statement announcing the appointment.
The appointment will enable the exchange to “more effectively promote the advantages of TSX and TSXV unique capital formation ecosystem to potential clients and to better support Israeli companies listing on our Exchanges,” Thadaney said. The TSXV exchange targets growth companies, while the TSX is the senior equity market.
Listing on the TSX will expose Israeli firms, at all stages of growth, to North American investors; will enable the firms to speed up an eventual US listing and will give them access to a “competitive landscape of investment banks to support growth companies with financing and research coverage,” the statement said.
As of end April 2017, there were six Israeli companies listed on TSX and TSXV with a market capitalization of approximately $3 billion, the statement said.
Stock markets in the US have traditionally been the preferred listing venue for Israeli tech companies, like Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and Wix.com Ltd., that offer their shares on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq to be closer to their markets and avoid burdensome local regulation. At the end of 2016 there were 73 Israeli companies listed on the Nasdaq, according to data provided by the Bank of Israel. with Israel ranking second in foreign listings on the Nasdaq after China.
The London Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange have also been active in drawing companies to their shores, as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has struggled to drum up local listings.
Three companies held initial public offerings of shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in 2016, raising a total of $68 million, according to exchange data, and three companies dual-listed their shares on the TASE. This compares to a record of 62 new listings, of which 56 were initial public offerings, on the exchange in 2007.
Even so, listings on the TASE in 2017 seem to be picking up. Since the start of the year seven companies held initial public offerings of shares on the exchange, more than the number of new companies listed in 2015 and 2016 combined, according to data provided by the exchange as of June 8.
TASE to admit new members
Separately on Monday, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said it has implemented changes to regulation that will enable the admittance of new members to its exchange. The rules are in line with international standards and are part of a strategic plan to boost trading volumes and listings.
The proposed changes are in line with Demutualization Law (changing the ownership structure of the TASE), which was approved by the Knesset on March 2017. The law aims to separate ownership and control of the TASE from its current members and to make trading on the stock exchange available to a large number of players. This move will increase competition among traders and the TASE expects that it will lead to a reduction in the commissions that the members collect from their clients, TASE said in a statement.
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