Bill Ackman Eyes Simultaneous Public Offerings of Firm and New Fund
Billionaire investor wants to take his hedge-fund management company, Pershing Square, public at the same time as a new closed-end fund next year
- Bill Ackman is eyeing a dual public offering of his hedge-fund firm, Pershing Square, and a new investment fund, Pershing Square USA, early next year.
- Investors in Pershing Square USA would receive shares in the management company, Pershing Square, as an incentive.
- Pershing Square manages approximately $20 billion and its main fund is up 17% this year through Nov. 18.
Bill Ackman is looking to take public his hedge-fund firm, Pershing Square, and a new investment fund simultaneously, according to people familiar with the matter.
He hopes to stage the unique double public offering early next year, the people said.
The Wall Street Journal reported last spring that Ackman was considering an IPO of his investment firm and was raising money from investors as a precursor to an IPO.
Meanwhile, Pershing Square had also filed a prospectus early last year for a new closed-end fund, Pershing Square USA, Ltd., which would be marketed to U.S. individual investors and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He paused fundraising efforts for that fund in July 2024.
Ackman, long a fan of creative financial maneuvers, is now pursuing what would amount to simultaneous offerings of both, the people said.
Investors who invest in the closed-end fund would receive shares in the management company, Pershing Square, for free, some of the people said. Partners of Pershing Square would give away up to 10% of shares in the firm, which could be valued well over the $10.5 billion valuation it fetched in 2024.
It is always possible the plans will fall apart or that Ackman could change course again. The Financial Times reported earlier Friday that Ackman was preparing a listing of his hedge fund business, without mentioning his other plans.
One of the challenges Ackman acknowledges is the need to generate enthusiasm for Pershing Square USA’s closed-end structure, which has fallen out of favor with investors. Similar funds—including one Ackman listed a decade ago in Europe—trade at a discount to the net value of their holdings.
That is part of the reason he attached shares in the management company as an incentive.
A closed-end fund sells a fixed number of shares in a public offering. Investors can exit only by selling shares to other investors at their price on the open market, regardless of the value of the fund’s investments.
Ackman’s profile has risen beyond Wall Street since he became an outspoken social crusader and aligned himself with figures including President Trump and Elon Musk. That could make his closed-end fund attractive to the general investing public.
Pershing Square manages roughly $20 billion. Once known for activism, it since has transitioned its strategy to focus on concentrated stakes in big public companies. His main fund is up 17% this year through Nov. 18.
Ackman himself has a history of pushing the envelope with novel investment ideas and endeavors, not all of which go according to plan. In 2020, he raised $4 billion in what was the largest-ever IPO for a special-purpose acquisition company but failed to consummate his chosen transaction.
Then in 2023 he got regulators’ blessing for a new investment vehicle, a special-purpose acquisition rights company—a spin on a SPAC he said was more shareholder-friendly. It has yet to announce a deal.
More recently, the firm bought nearly half of the real-estate firm Howard Hughes, which Ackman has envisioned as a modern-day Berkshire Hathaway, referencing the company of his longtime idol, Warren Buffett.