Bill Ackman's Pershing Square retires from activist short campaigns
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Billionaire investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square fund has permanently retired from activist short campaigns, a strategy that has was limited to two high-profile short targets.
"Despite our limited participation in this investment strategy, it has generated enormous media attention for Pershing Square," Ackman wrote in the fund's 2021 annual report. "In addition to massive amounts of media hits, our two short activist investments managed to inspire a book and a movie. Fortunately for all of us, and as importantly for our reputation as a supportive constructive owner, we have permanently retired from this line of work."
Pershing Square's high profile short targets included supplements maker Herbalife (HLF) and municipal bond insurer MBIA Inc. (MBI). Ackman famously sparred with fellow activist billionaire Carl Icahn over his short $1 billion bet on Herbalife, which he claimed was a "pyramid scheme."
Pershing Square in recent years has appeared to take a more backseat approach to activism than in its earlier years, where it targeted companies including J.C. Penney and Canadian Pacific Railway (CNP).
"The result is that all of our interactions with companies over the last five years have been cordial, constructive, and productive," Ackman wrote. "We intend to keep it that way as it makes our job easier and more fun, and our quality of life better. So, if it is helpful to call this quieter approach Pershing Square 3.0, let it hereby be so anointed."
Ackman's newest investments include Canadian Pacific (NYSE:CP) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). Pershing Square disclosed owning 2.8M Canadian Pacific (CP) shares earlier this month, according an amended 13-F filing. The investor has since added to his position and has economic exposure of about 14.8M shares, or $1.2B, in stock and forward contracts, according to a Bloomberg report.
Ackman announced in late January that the fund had just acquired 3.1 million Netflix (NFLX) shares, to make it at the time a top-20 holder in the video-streaming service.