Edison Investment Research has expanded into Israel, hiring the founder of HSBC’s equity research team for Israel-listed companies, Will Manuel, as an analyst.
The firm is expanding its global coverage of healthcare and technology sectors, saying there is growing demand from the investment community in North America and Europe for research on Israeli companies.
Manuel, who was also HSBC’s former head of equities research across Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, will be based locally and focus on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, particularly companies in the healthcare and technology sectors, and stocks with listings on international stock exchanges.
“Global equity fund interest in Israel boomed in the last two decades corresponding with Israel’s emergence as a high tech economy and at one point accounted for around 8% of the MSCI emerging market index,” Manuel says in a statement.
“The paradox of that stellar growth was that when MSCI upgraded Israel to a developed market in 2012, many big international banks pulled back on widespread Israeli equities research coverage as the country as a whole represents a far smaller fraction of that group of developed market economies than emerging markets.”
He adds that the relative scale of the healthcare and technology sectors compared to international peers remains high.
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