Activist investor Bill Ackman on Wednesday withdrew a high-profile initial public offering for Pershing Square USA Inc., a day after disclosing that a new portfolio would raise $2 billion in capital that had already been reduced.
The billionaire head of Pershing Square Capital Management had initially postponed the launch of his PSUS fund, which was scheduled for this week, until next week.
The Harvard University graduate, who has been outspoken on social media in recent months about rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses, said Wednesday he would reconsider the IPO once a revised deal is ready to begin.
“PSUS has generated significant investor interest, but one big question remains: Would investors be better off waiting to invest in an aftermarket offering rather than an IPO?” Ackman said in a statement.
The new fund, his first in a decade, was aiming to raise just a fraction of the $25 billion that Ackman had originally expected.
Mr. Ackman’s vision was to create a closed-end fund, meaning shareholders could only exit if someone else bought their shares, matching the positions he held in his other major investment vehicles.
A presentation by the star hedge fund manager earlier this month said his firm had put $500 million into a new investment holding company.
In a letter to investors who hold shares in his companies last Wednesday, Ackman said he would cap the offering at $10 billion and expects to attract $2.5 billion to $4 billion in new capital.
The letter, later made public in an SEC filing, named Baupost ($150 million), Putnam Investments ($40 million) and the Texas Teachers Retirement System ($60 million) as potential investors.
Ackman urged investors in Pershing Square’s management company to back the company, saying it would “strengthen the power of the initial message to the market tomorrow about the size of the deal.”
But Bloomberg reported on Monday that Seth Klarman’s Baupost had backed away from its plans to get involved.
A prolific investor with a large social media following, Ackman is one of the best-known figures in the hedge fund industry. He frequently speaks out on a range of topics from political infighting to higher education on his X account.
Earlier this year, he led a campaign to criticize Harvard University following a furor over practices related to anti-Semitism, plagiarism and financial management.
