Bill Ackman won’t raise anything close to what he planned for his hedge fund IPO

By CNN Newsource

Published July 30, 2024 12:27 PM

By Krystal Hur, CNN

New York (CNN) — Bill Ackman, billionaire hedge fund manager and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, is seeking $2 billion to take the company’s investment fund public.

That’s significantly less than what Ackman said he had hoped to raise for his new fund — a rare opportunity for the public to invest in a private hedge fund.

In a letter to strategic partners last week, Ackman said that he expected to raise between $2.5 billion to $4 billion. But the company said in a July 25 regulatory filing containing the letter that it “specifically disclaims the statements made by Mr. Ackman.”

Ackman told those around him he hoped to raise around $25 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing anonymous sources.

The company will offer 40 million shares priced at $50 apiece, according to a Tuesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Underwriters including banks such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Jefferies, have the option to purchase up to an additional 6 million shares at the same price. That would be an additional $300 million value for the investment fund, Pershing Square USA.

Pershing Square did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Pershing Square’s public debut, expected this week, was delayed to a pending date, according to the New York Stock Exchange last Friday. The Journal reported that shares are expected to begin trading next Tuesday. The stock ticker will be PSUS.

The company’s IPO will launch as a closed-end fund, which issues a fixed number of shares to investors at its initial public offering and uses that cash to carry out its investment strategy. These funds can trade above or below the value of their net asset value.

Ackman is an investor known for ruthless tactics that made him a billionaire — even if his most memorable gamble was a disastrous $1 billion bet against Herbalife. But in recent years, he moved his day job away from the kind of loud corporate activism that made executives fear him. Pershing Square officially hung up its activist megaphone in 2022, opting to work with a small group of companies behind the scenes.

Around the same time, Ackman turned his own personal megaphone on high volume, broadcasting right-wing takes on X. He regularly reposts pro-Trump and pro-Israel commentary and rails against DEI to his more than 1.2 million followers.

CNN’s Allison Morrow contributed to this report.