The Israel Securities Authority on Sunday approved the selling of most of the shares of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to foreign companies.

The sale of the shares will lead to a separation between the ownership of the stock exchange and its companies, and thus it is expected to minimize conflicts of interests.

The buyers are U.S. investment company Manikay Partners, which will acquire about 20 percent of the shares for 109 million new shekels (30 million U.S. dollars), and Australian Sunsuper Fund and Moelis Group, U.S. Dalton Investments, as well as the Novo Nordisk Foundation from Denmark, which will purchase 12.8 percent each.

The four last investors will deposit a total of 32.9 percent of these shares in trust, so that at the end of the process each will hold 4.69 percent of the shares.

A total of 71.7 percent of the shares of the only stock exchange in Israel will be sold to the five companies.