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Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has filed for a US initial public offering for his Pershing Square vehicle on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ackman plans to list shares in a new closed-end fund, Pershing Square USA, as he tries to realise his ambition to build a “modern-day Berkshire Hathaway”.
The hedge fund billionaire has envisioned Pershing Square USA as part of an empire in the model of Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.
It would serve as a big participant in US capital markets, backing high-quality companies while acting as an anchor investor in another Pershing Square vehicle to help large private companies go public.
Those who buy stock in the new closed-end fund will also receive shares in his hedge fund management company, which makes the investment decisions and garners the fees. Every 100 shares in Pershing Square USA entitles stockholders to 20 shares in the management company.
“Bill and the team . . . are laying the foundation for what could become a Berkshire Hathaway for our generation,” said James Elbaor, managing partner of Marlton, which is an equity investor in Pershing Square.
The filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said shares in Pershing Square USA would be offered at $50 each, and that Ackman had secured $2.8bn in commitments from pensions, insurance companies and other investors.
He is seeking to raise between $5bn and $10bn in the combined IPO, which includes those commitments.
Ackman previously tried to list Pershing Square USA in 2024, aiming to raise as much as $25bn in what would have been one of the largest IPOs in history.
That effort failed because of investor concerns that its shares would quickly trade at a discount to their net asset value and that backers might be punished as early investors in the IPO.
Since then, Ackman has diversified his business, taking control of listed real estate development company Howard Hughes last year and striking a $2.1bn deal for Bermuda-based insurer Vantage Risk, replicating a key element of Berkshire Hathaway’s structure.
Closed-end funds often trade at a discount to the value of the underlying holdings because it is not easy to redeem shares for value like a regular exchange traded fund.
Ackman’s offer of shares in the management company may help to assuage those concerns, by giving backers in the new vehicle a way to share in the economics of his hedge fund.
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