By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Ackman's firm Pershing Square Capital Management will put $500 million into its new U.S.-listed investment holding company, the hedge fund manager said in a presentation on Wednesday.
Pershing Square USA Ltd, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PSUS, could raise as much as $25 billion in fresh capital and will more than double the size of Ackman's assets under management, people familiar with the matter said this week.
The new company will largely mimic Ackman's hedge fund by investing in a concentrated number of large corporations. But it will be cheaper because there is no performance fee, it will offer hedges in an uncertain investment environment and it will be overseen by a "real board of directors", Ackman said in a video posted on the website RetailRoadshow.com.
The $500 million anchor investment will be held for at least 10 years, he said. He said he will communicate with investors through quarterly conference calls and detail changes in investments or other important messages on X, where he has 1.3 million followers.
While he cannot guarantee more strong double digit returns, Ackman said he will do his best with an experienced and long-serving team.
Since its launch two decades ago, Ackman's hedge fund returned 16.5% a year. Had it existed in its current form, Pershing Square USA would have returned 19.4% during that time, he said. Those returns would have outperformed the S&P 500 stock market index by 9.3 percentage points per year.
Over the last 6-1/2 years it would have returned 31%, he said.