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Activist investor and newly-public persona Bill Ackman has IPO ambitions.
The hedge-fund manager, who has built up a massive social media following in recent months, is looking to take his investment management firm Pershing Square public as early as next year, The Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
In preparation for the listing, the firm is raising $1.05 billion in a funding round that would value the firm at $10.5 billion, CNBC reported citing a source with knowledge of the matter. The source told CNBC that the investors are institutional and family offices who prefer to remain anonymous.
Pershing Square declined Quartz’s request for comment on the matter.
The New York-based hedge fund had $18.6 billion in total assets under management as of the end of April, with most of it tied up in its closed-end fund, Pershing Square Holdings. The fund’s shares trade primarily in European stock exchanges. The firm has holdings in a limited number of companies, including Universal Music Group, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Hilton Worldwide, and Google parent Alphabet.
Ackman made headlines last year after he launched a campaign to oust the then-president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, over the school’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Ackman has built up a following of 1.2 million users on social media platform X, where he posts about everything from his support for Israel, criticism of campus protests Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, and his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election.
In February, Ackman filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a closed-end management investment company whose portfolio will include 12 to 24 core holdings. The fund’s common shares are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PSUS.”
Ackman’s “brand-name profile and broad retail following will drive substantial investor interest and liquidity in the secondary market,” the company said in the filing.
Last September, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, Ackman’s version of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). During a call with analysts on Wednesday, Ackman said the firm is “aggressively looking for potential companies to take public” by merging with the investment vehicle.