Herzog advises Invesco Investment Management Limited and Invesco UK Services Limited (“Invesco“) on its Dual Listing of 5 ETF’s on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Invesco Ltd. is an independent American investment management company that is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, in addition to branch offices in 20 countries. As of Dec. 31, 2021 Invesco managed $1,610.9 billion in assets on behalf of clients worldwide.

Invesco successfully registered six (6) ETF’s for trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The ETF’s that were registered for trading are:

1. Invesco S&P 500 UCITS ETF
2. Invesco S&P 500 ESG UCITS ETF
3. Invesco Financials S&P US Select Sector UCITS ETF
4. Invesco Health Care S&P US Select Sector UCITS ETF
5. Invesco KBW NASDAQ Fintech UCITS ETF
6. Invesco MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF

The registration was possible due to Amendment 23 to the Joint Investment Trust Law- 1994. The Joint Investments in Trust Regulations (Foreign Fund Unit Offerings), 5776-2016 (the “Foreign Funds Regulations“), permit the listing of European and American ETFs on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (“TASE“), based on the regulation that applies to their activity outside of Israel (namely, the EU UCITS Directive or the US Investment Company Act of 1940). Accordingly, global asset managers are able to list such ETFs on the TASE, without publishing a complete prospectus in Hebrew, or being subject to significant additional reporting obligations.

In order to be able to benefit from this dual-listing “relief”, ETFs have to be listed on one of the exchanges included in the Second or Third Schedules of the Israeli Securities Law, 5728-1968 (the “Eligible Exchanges“). As described in our previous client update (link), the ISA is in the process of expanding the list of Eligible Exchanges (by way of amending the Securities Law). While this process is still underway, the Israeli Securities Authority (“ISA“) decided to take an interim step, and allow ETFs that are listed on the Standard listing segment of the London Stock Exchange (“LSE“) to benefit from the dual-listing relief, effective January 4^th 2022. Up until now, ETFs had to be listed on the Premium listing segment of LSE. However, a regulatory change in the UK, that has recently come into effect on January 4^th 2022, makes this prerequisite applicable.

Liat Maidler, Head of Regulation – Securities and Capital Markets commented “We welcome this big step towards opening the Israeli market to the biggest and most professional asset managers in the world. We anticipate that during 2022 more global fund managers will join those already listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and expand the range of products offered to the public in Israel”.

Herzog, Fox & Neeman represents the vast majority of global asset managers, mutual funds and ETFs that are currently registered in Israel, and will be happy to be at your service for any issue in these areas.

Invesco was represented by:

Liat Maidler; Dor Bar Haim; Or Asaf and Matan Amoyal – Securities and Capital Markets Regulation Team, Herzog, Fox& Neeman