Episode summary
Ackman Starts Marketing Pershing IPO to Raise up to $10 Billion | Bloomberg Intelligence
Bloomberg Intelligence
· · 18 min · Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Scarlet Fu · Guests: Bailey Lipschultz, Neil Sipes, Cassie Hallberg
Summary
Bill Ackman has restarted the push to take Pershing Square public, with a road show that could raise between $5 billion and $10 billion for a closed-end fund that also gives buyers a stake in Pershing Square proper. The host and a guest said the move is meant to bolster assets under management and fees, while also testing whether Ackman can sell a retail-heavy story around long-term investing, much like Berkshire Hathaway. The guest said the offering is being pitched over a longer-than-normal road show and that the backdrop is uncertain, but Pershing Square is still moving ahead.
The conversation then shifted to Goldman Sachs, where the guest said the firm’s core capital markets business was strong in the first quarter, especially equities and investment banking, even as fixed-income trading came in below expectations. He said the miss may be Goldman-specific, but it will matter to watch how peers report and whether volatility keeps helping trading without hurting deal-making.
The final segment focused on PureTrace Labs, an NJIT-backed startup using paper spray mass spectrometry to speed PFAS testing from weeks to minutes. The guest said the company is aiming first at homeowners and home inspectors, then broader uses in water, soil, and packaging testing.
Key takeaways
- The guest said Pershing Square USA is targeting $5 billion to $10 billion and is trying to win retail investors with a longer road show.
- The guest said Ackman wants to build Pershing Square into a modern Berkshire Hathaway-style vehicle with public-market access.
- The guest said Goldman’s first-quarter equity trading and banking results were strong, but fixed-income revenue was the main miss.
- The guest said the Goldman fixed-income weakness may be company-specific, so peers’ trading updates will be an important read-through.
- The guest said PureTrace Labs can test PFAS in under 3 minutes and at a fraction of current costs, aiming first at homeowners and home inspectors.
Notable quotes
“he will raise money between $5 and $10 billion for the closed end fund. And if you participate in that, you get a stake in Pershing Square proper”
“So, bolstering their AUM, bolstering the fees that they're going to generate from this product among others”
“we're talking about some positions in some pretty big companies. You've got amazon.com, Howard Hughes, Google, Uber, Meta, some of the bigger names”
“The first quarter was solid. The backlog has dipped a little bit from a 4-year high in the prior quarter”
“we can do it in minutes versus weeks, and we can do it at a third of the cost of what the current current methodologies are”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Apple car play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
Listen on demand wherever you get your podcast or watch us live on YouTube. We want to first talk a little bit about an IPO that's coming up later this month. Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor, has kicked off formal marketing for the IPO of his closed end fund and his hedge fund.
And this is something Bailey Lipschultz has been covering for us here as our initial public offering reporter. Bailey, this is not Bill Ackman's first go round with an IPO for his hedge fund and his closed end fund, is it? No, it's not.
And really when you look at how this has been playing out and kind of the mission that they've been attempting to kind of achieve, you go back to 2024 when he set out to raise $25 billion, then cut it to $2 billion, and ultimately pulled the plug on that. This is now a kind of reinvigorated, rethought-out strategy where he will raise money between $5 and $10 billion for the closed end fund. And if you participate in that, you get a stake in Pershing Square proper.
So, trying to incentivize to get this deal across the finish line, something that they were not successful doing, call it 2 years ago. Why is he doing it and why is he doing it now, Bailey? He's doing it to bolster assets under management.
So, he has a fund listed in Europe. You generate fees no matter what off a closed end fund. It's not like an ETF where you can face some of the redemption issues.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- pershing ipo marketing
- hedge fund closed-end fund
- goldman earnings
- bond trading revenue
- pfas testing technology
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GS
- Pershing Square USA Ltd.
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
- PureTrace Labs
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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