Universal Music Group Rejects Bill Ackman’s Bid To Delist From Amsterdam Stock Exchange

 Universal Music Group opposed a request from billionaire Bill Ackman to delist from Amsterdam’s stock exchange, saying Ackman’s hedge fund has no right to ask the record label to do so after Ackman cited a series of antisemitic attacks in the Dutch city as a “tipping point” earlier this week.

 

UMG—whose board Ackman sits on—said in a statement Saturday the company had “taken note” of Ackman’s request, saying neither the record label nor any of its other board members were “involved in the formulation” of Ackman asking the company to become domiciled in the U.S. and delist from Euronext’s Amsterdam exchange.

On Friday, Ackman said his hedge fund Pershing Square Holdings had a “contractual right” to have UMG listed in the U.S., saying the company would “exercise this right” and have a listing for UMG “no later than some time next year.”

Moving UMG’s listing from Amsterdam to the U.S. would offer “highly material benefits” for the record label, Ackman said, though he did not specify.

Pershing Square can request UMG be listed in the U.S. as long as a Pershing Square entity sells at least $500 million worth of UMG shares as part of the listing, UMG said.

UMG added it would “endeavor in good faith” to comply with its contractual obligations, though the process of a U.S. listing would be based on analysis that considers “the best interests” of the company’s shareholders.

Ackman’s fortune is valued at $9 billion, according to our latest estimates, making him the 307th-richest person in the world. Ackman founded Pershing Square in 2004 and serves as the hedge fund’s chief executive while holding stakes in several companies, including Chipotle, Hilton and Google parent Alphabet.

Fans of the Israeli soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv were “ambushed and brutally attacked” Thursday night as a mob chanted “anti-Israel slogans” after the team’s match against the Dutch club Ajax, according to the Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands. The embassy compared the attacks to Kristallnacht, when Nazi Germany launched an assault on the country’s Jewish population. Amsterdam police said 62 people were arrested and five people were hospitalized after the attack, and officials were investigating reports of a possible hostage situation and missing persons. Ackman subsequently announced he would seek approval from Pershing Square’s board to drop its listing on Amsterdam’s exchange, saying the attacks provided “an appropriate tipping point for this conclusion.” Over the last year, Ackman became a prominent critic of antisemitism after a series of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Last year, Ackman criticized Harvard University, his alma mater where he had been a major donor, saying antisemitism had “exploded” at the school. He later offered similar criticism to other universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania.