Billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Withdraws IPO
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s capital management firm will withdraw its initial public offering, the billionaire said Wednesday, less than half a year after he pushed for the fund to go public as an option for ordinary investors.
Key Facts
In a statement, Ackman said Pershing Square USA, Ltd. will not go public on the New York Stock Exchange as planned due to “one principal question” that remained after weeks of meetings with “many institutions and family offices.”
Ackman said that question was whether investors would be “better served waiting to invest in the aftermarket than in the IPO.”
The move halts momentum for Pershing Square, which had been aiming to raise $2 billion in the share sale, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week—Ackman had earlier pitched a $10 billion target.
Ackman said he plans to “report back once we are ready to launch a revised transaction.”
Key Facts
In a statement, Ackman said Pershing Square USA, Ltd. will not go public on the New York Stock Exchange as planned due to “one principal question” that remained after weeks of meetings with “many institutions and family offices.”
Ackman said that question was whether investors would be “better served waiting to invest in the aftermarket than in the IPO.”
The move halts momentum for Pershing Square, which had been aiming to raise $2 billion in the share sale, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week—Ackman had earlier pitched a $10 billion target.
Ackman said he plans to “report back once we are ready to launch a revised transaction.”
Key Background
Ackman founded hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004, with the fund boasting a whopping $18.7 billion in assets as of June 30, though its limited stock portfolio is consolidated in just seven companies, including Google parent Alphabet, Chipotle, Hilton and Howard Hughes. In recent years, Ackman has attempted to expand operations, including in 2020 with a special purchase acquisition company, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings. That SPAC raised $4 billion and agreed to take a minority stake in Universal Music Group, though Ackman reneged that deal in 2021 over SEC opposition. Ackman later liquidated that company and returned the $4 billion to investors. Plans for Ackman’s Pershing Square USA started up in February. If approved, the fund would be structured as a closed-end management fund, according to a February SEC filing, meaning it would raise money through its IPO before shares could be open for public trading. Ackman, who pledged to waive a management fee for the fund’s first year of operations, intended to make the fund available for ordinary investors, saying he would impose a 2% management fee after the first year and waive an additional performance fee.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Ackman’s net worth at roughly $9.1 billion, making the Pershing Square Capital Management CEO the world’s 266th-richest person.
Tangent
Ackman has in recent months emerged as an outspoken critic of student protests in response to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, as well as leadership at colleges and universities for their response to those protests. In October, three days after Hamas’ attack on Israel, Ackman pledged not to hire Harvard students who signed a letter putting sole blame for the war on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian enclave. In November, Ackman called on the Ivy League school to suspend students who allegedly attacked a Jewish student at a demonstration (students involved in the demonstration told Forbes that event organizers never “physically engaged” with the student in question). Ackman also pushed for the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to resign over their response to growing student-led protests on campus and alleged antisemitic rhetoric on campus—Harvard president Claudine Gay and Penn president Liz Magill later stepped down. Ackman has also embraced a right-wing movement in recent months targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, and in May was reportedly considering endorsing former President Donald Trump, despite past donations to Democratic candidates and to former South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley in the GOP primary—Ackman made his endorsement official earlier this month after a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump.
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