Ackman sprints towards a $100 billion IPO! Pershing launches closed-end fund with the goal of creating "the next Berkshire Hathaway".

Hedge fund legend Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Inc., which he founded and personally steers, has submitted an initial public offering (IPO) application to the US stock market. This deal will see billionaire Ackman's hedge fund company, along with a new closed-end fund, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The application documents show that this combined IPO includes shares of Pershing Square USA Ltd. (a closed-end fund) and a portion of the shares of Ackman's hedge fund company, Pershing Square Capital Management. According to the documents, investors subscribing to the closed-end fund IPO will receive 20 shares of the hedge fund management company for every 100 shares they purchase. The documents filed on Tuesday show that as of the end of 2025, this Wall Street alternative asset management company manages total assets of approximately $30.7 billion, with $20.7 billion being fee-paying assets. Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. is the closed-end fund listed on the London Stock Exchange, with assets under management totaling $17.1 billion as of the end of February. Data compiled by institutions shows that, similar to many other closed-end funds, its trading price is significantly lower than its net asset value. Data shows that currently, the fund's median price is 24% lower than its net asset value. Overall, Ackman's aim with this listing is a "combined IPO": a portion is his hedge fund management company Pershing Square Capital Management / Pershing Square Inc., and another portion is the newly established closed-end fund Pershing Square USA. In other words, it's not just the hedge fund company Pershing Square going public, but rather the hedge fund management company and the new fund jointly entering the US market. Pershing Square expects that once the IPO pricing is determined, the two companies will trade independently. This means they will list on the NYSE with different codes, and investors purchasing shares in the closed-end fund will receive a certain proportion of the management company's shares. After listing, these two entities will be separate securities assets, not a combined transaction. The documents show that Ackman hopes to raise $5 billion to $10 billion for Pershing Square USA through this combined offering, with investors being able to purchase shares at $50 per share. The issuance has already received subscription commitments from eligible investors totaling $2.8 billion, including family offices, pension funds, and insurance companies. Investors participating in the private placement will receive 30 shares of the hedge fund for every 100 shares of the closed-end fund they subscribe to. This filing marks the latest step in Ackman's long-term strategic transformation efforts: he is trying to shift towards a long-term market investment strategy inspired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, steering away from the traditional hedge fund model and aiming to build a long-term capital structure similar to Berkshire. The IPO of Pershing Square is the latest step in Ackman's long-term shift towards a "Berkshire-style" model: no longer just the traditional hedge fund structure of "fundraising - fee - redemption", but aiming to have more stable, long-term capital to configure, in an effort to upgrade Pershing from a star hedge fund to a platform more like "a publicly listed long-term investment empire." It is understood that this combined offering is led by Wall Street financial giants including Citigroup, UBS Group, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Not long ago, a plan to raise up to $25 billion for a closed-end fund slated to be listed on the NYSE in 2024 fell through. Months later, Ackman's Pershing Square shifted focus to actively increasing its stake in Howard Hughes Holdings Inc., aiming to use it as a vehicle to gain control of other companies. In 2024, he agreed to sell a 10% stake in Pershing through a private placement transaction, valuing Pershing at over $10 billion before the proposed IPO.