Fifth Week at Thomson Reuters

In my fifth week here at Thomson Reuters I worked on retrieving information regarding Israeli companies’ initial public offering (IPO), which can also be referred to as an “offering” made by the company that issues common stock or shares to the public for the first time. For those who don’e know, IPOs are usually issued by small or young companies that are in need of capital in order to expand, in addition to large privately-owned companies that wish to become publicly traded.

In addition, this week I had to go back and add a few additional entries to the original list of companies for which I had to conduct research on at the beginning of my fellowship, regarding the financial reporting and analysis methods used by Israeli companies. This finalized list is now going to be embedded into Thomson Reuters’ online data base.

Moreover, later during the week me and the rest of the Tamid Group here in Israel attended a business dinner at the rooftop outdoor restaurant of the Mamilla Hotel in Jeruslaem. At the dinner we had the pleasure to meet with Mr. Elie Wurtman – General Partner of Benchmark Capital together with his associate Judith Phillips and GreenRoad’s Founder & Chief of Safety, Mr. Hod Fleishman. The dinner itself went great, and much like the dinner we had with Mr. Jonathan Medved and his family, we once again, had the opportunity to promote and  discuss many of Tamid’s goals and aspirations.

Later on that night, we decided to once again enjoy the pub/club scene in Jerusalem and ended up in several spots across town.

Fourth Week at Thomson Reuters

In my fourth week here at Thomson Reuters I finalized my research that involved portfolio managers from around the world. As I have discussed last week, my research involved these five basic questions:

1. What are your thoughts about investing in the Israeli equities markets? (banking, chemicals, high-tech, bio-tech & telecom)
2. With the recent MSCI upgrade to developed market status, are you now doing due-diligences on Israeli equities?
3. What are the biggest challenges/obstacles for investing in Israeli equities?
4. Are you focused on companies that have a majority of their Revenue in Israel (banks and telecom) or foreign revenue?
5. Do you feel that you have enough access to management/information on Israel corporations?

What I have found on the whole cannot be written down here due to confidentiality reasons, but one thing can be said about this project, which is the fact that I had really enjoyed talking to so many important people, which hold key positions in different companies that are spread globally. I must admit though to the fact that it was quite hard getting a hold of many of the people with which I spoke to (and at times quite frustrating) but once I got through, the conversations I had were really eye-opening and interesting as to how different global companies think and act based on what is essentially the same given ‘scenario’.

In addition, later during the week me and the rest of the Tamid group here in Israel attended Erev Shabbat dinner with Jonathan Medved and his family. Jonathan Medved is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Vringo, which is more commonly known as the video ringtone company. Medved’s family was extremely nice to all of us, and the dinner itself went great, as we had a chance to discuss many of Tamid’s goals and aspirations as well as our very own personal internships here in Israel.

Later on that night, it was also the first time we all got to enjoy a night out together in Jerusalem as we sat down at a local pub. This last weekend was really fun and I can’t wait for the next one.

Third Week at Thomson Reuters

In my third week here at Thomson Reuters, as expected, I finally started to conduct my research that as explained earlier, targets portfolio managers from around the world which represent different global companies. Just a quick reminder from last week –  The research mainly revolves around the notion that the reclassification by the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International’s market capitalization weighted index) of the Israeli equity market from EM – ‘Emerging Market’ to DM – ‘Developed Market’ may impact the way in which these very same investors carry on their business decisions.

More specifically, my research in its most basic form, revolves around these five basic questions (of which I have written below as a guideline for each conversation that I had with the different portfolio managers);

1. What are your thoughts about investing in the Israeli equities markets? (banking, chemicals, high-tech, bio-tech & telecom)
2. With the recent MSCI upgrade to developed market status, are you now doing due-diligences on Israeli equities?
3. What are the biggest challenges/obstacles for investing in Israeli equities?
4. Are you focused on companies that have a majority of their Revenue in Israel (banks and telecom) or foreign revenue?
5. Do you feel that you have enough access to management/information on Israel corporations?

Since I just started doing the research, I won’t go into detail as to what I found out until now (also because I don’t believe that I have enough input from the different Portfolio Managers to make a conclusion) but what I can say is that I am continuing the research in the upcoming week and so I should have enough data by the end of it. In addition, besides the rough data, I would like to say that I find it really interesting to conduct these conversations with all of these different professionals from around the world. It is really eye opening as to what the world thinks of Israel’s market and business etiquette.

On a different note, overall my experience here in Israel has been great, I got to see many of my friends in the past couple of weeks and I am looking forward to seeing many more as time goes by.

Second Week at Thomson Reuters

First of all I would like to start by saying that I finally met up with my boss/ mentor Mr. Yosef Kaplan, and I was happy to find out that Mr. Kaplan is easygoing and insightful, yet at the same time quite demanding. The tasks I perform really open up my mind in regard to the many companies with which Thomson Reuters conducts business with on daily basis, as well as the many services and products that Thomson Reuters provides to the market.

In my second week here at Thomson Reuters, I finalized my market research regarding the many companies’ financial reporting and analysis methods. The task as I explained in a previous post was not easy but quite interesting and enjoyable to perform.

This week I’m about to start conducting research, which will be mainly done by phone/ conference calls. The research targets portfolio managers from around the world that represent different international companies. The research mainly revolves around the notion that the reclassification by the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International’s market capitalization weighted index) of the Israeli equity market from EM – ‘Emerging Market’ to DM – ‘Developed Market’ may impact the way in which these very same investors carry on their business decisions. More specifically, I will be trying to collect useful data that will later be used as the premise for any adjustments that may need to be taken by Thomson Reuters when approaching future investors, wishing to invest within the Israeli equity market.