US activist puts UK firms in sights as he lists in London
BILLIONAIRE activist Bill Ackman could turn his gaze across the
Atlantic to terrorise UK boardrooms, he told the Standard today.
The US activist is listing his
$4.6 billion (£3.6 billion) Pershing Square Holdings investment fund in London today, with hopes of attracting millions more in fresh capital. Pershing is likely to join the FTSE 250 in June.
Ackman’s fund currently has no UK investments — preferring to focus on the US market — but investing in British firms is “something that we are open to”, he said. “You should expect the substantial majority of our investments to be in the US but if we were to do something outside the US the most likely market would be the UK... It’s very feasible.”
Pershing is listed in Amsterdam but investors have been pushing
Ackman, worth $1.4 billion, to float on larger and more liquid London market. He added that Brexit had no bearing on today’s move. “We think the London Stock Exchange is still one of the world’s premier venues, certainty for an entity like this one. The asset management industry is dominant in the UK.”
The hedge-fund boss last month sold out of his worst investment — a big stake in US drugs firm Valeant
(see box) — at a huge loss but insisted his “batting average is still high”.
Ackman also defended the role of the activist investors in the corporate ecosphere as more cash flows towards cheaper, index-tracking funds. “As the world becomes more passively managed, as more and more capital becomes indexed, it’s actually the activist investors the index funds rely on to improve everything from the governance to the way their businesses are being managed,” he said. “If you envision a world where every stock was held by an index fund, there would be no one to knock on the door and say ‘we need change here’.”
The billionaire is also hoping that the London listing will help Pershing increase its value. “It’s trading at a huge discount,” he added.
Ackman has backers in London who have been with Pershing since its beginning in 2004 but he is due to spend the next two days in meetings with investors, who can now pump in funds following the London launch.
@russ_lynch