Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has postponed the highly publicized public offering of Pershing Square USA, according to a filing on the New York Stock Exchange website on Friday.
The deal was scheduled to be priced on Monday and traded the following day, according to the terms of the deal he had previously seen. Bloomberg News It has been reported.
The delay comes a day after Ackman cut the fund’s fundraising target from $25 billion to between $2.5 billion and $4 billion.
Even this minimum goal may be difficult.
“Bill has not been able to raise more than the $1 billion he has gotten from friends,” a source directly involved in the IPO told The Washington Post on Friday.
“People want to see where it’s trading first before investing.”
Akman did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
Pershing Square issued a press release after the news broke, confirming that the IPO will move forward “with a pricing date to be announced.”
The statement added that the initial public offering could begin sometime in the next two weeks at a price of $50 per common share.
On Thursday, Ackman filed an update with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which included a letter Ackman wrote to shareholders of his firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, asking them to support the new investment venture.
The Harvard graduate — who has become a prominent figure on social media with his posts about rampant anti-Semitism on campus — told shareholders they should participate in the IPO “as soon as possible” in order to “optimize the strength” of the deal.
“He didn’t want a sub-listing, as 99% of companies like this trade at a discount to their net asset value, and he thought that because of his public persona he would resist the trend, but he didn’t,” the source said.
Ackman’s fund has returned 16.5% annually.
The 58-year-old businessman — who has a net worth of $9.1 billion, according to Forbes, and who endorsed former President Donald Trump shortly after he was shot — recently sold a stake in the company that valued him at more than $10 billion.
With James Franny
“Devoted student. Bacon advocate. Beer scholar. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot. Typical coffee enthusiast.”