An American investor, hedge fund manager, as well as a philanthropist, is named for Bill Ackman. Moreover, he is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. He is considered by some to be a contrarian investor but considers himself an activist investor.
Bill Ackman Buys Shares of Private Equity Giant Blackstone
Bill Ackman is buying shares of private equity heavyweight Blackstone Group Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter, as the growing coronavirus pandemic roils markets. Blackstone slumped 1.6% on Wednesday and has declined 34% over the past month. Competitors including Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc. have recorded similar declines.
Source: @wsj.com
Bill Ackman Fears Coronavirus Underreaction Will Be Deadly: ‘Hell Is Coming’
Pershing Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman in an emotional interview on CNBC begged President Donald Trump and major corporations to shut down the country for a month to protect against coronavirus’ deleterious effects on the economy. Ackman went on to chastise young people for continuing to go out, and blaming a reported New York City exodus for spreading the disease to other areas, and urged President Trump to issue a widespread shutdown of the economy to prevent the outbreak from growing worse.
Famous For
- Being the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management.
- For his investment style.
Who are the parents of Bill Ackman?
Bill Ackman was born to Ronnie and Lawrence David Ackman on 11th May 1966 in the USA. As of 2019, he celebrated his 53rd birthday with his friends. His nationality is American and his ethnicity is White. He is Christian by religion. His father served as the chairman of the ‘Ackman–Ziff Real Estate Group,’ a real-estate financing firm in New York. He grew up in Chappaqua, in Westchester County, New York. He attended ‘Harvard College’ and obtained a BA “magna cum laude” in history in 1988. In his honors thesis, titled “Scaling the Ivy Wall: the Jewish and Asian American Experience in Harvard Admissions,” he wrote extensively about the school’s admission policies. In 1992, he studied at Harvard Business School and he earned an MBA degree.
How is the Investment Style of Bill Ackman?
- His activities were published at the University of Oxford and characterizes with Canadian Pacific Railway as paradigmatic.
- His investing style has been praised as well as criticized by the USA government officials, heads of other hedge funds.
- His most notable market plays include shorting MBIA’s bonds during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, his proxy fight with Canadian Pacific Railway, and his stakes in the Target Corporation, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Chipotle Mexican Grill.
- From 2012 to 2018, Ackman held a US$1 billion short against the nutrition company Herbalife, a company he has claimed is a pyramid scheme designed as a multi-level marketing firm.
How was the Career of Bill Ackman?
- He founded the investment firm Gotham Partners with fellow Harvard graduate David P. Berkowitz in the year 1992.
- The firm then made small investments in public companies.
- After that, he partnered with the insurance and real estate firm Leucadia National to bid for Rockefeller Center in the year 1995 but they did not win the deal.
- By the year 2002, Gotham Partners was entrenched in litigation, with many people having stakes in the companies where Gotham also made investments.
- He had to finally liquidate the funds of the firm in the year 2003, owing to bad debts.
- While a probe was being made on Ackman’s trading by the State of New York and federal authorities, he commenced research in 2002 that focused on challenging the AAA rating of the financial services company ‘MBIA.’
- He was then charged for copying statements of 725,000 pages regarding the financial services company in his law firm’s compliance with a subpoena.
- After that, he contended that ‘MBIA’ was legally barred from trading “credit default swap” (CDS) protection worth billions of dollars that the financial services company had sold against different mortgage-backed “collateralized debit obligations” (CDOs) through another corporation, known as ‘LaCrosse Financial Products,’ which was described by ‘MBIA’ as an “orphaned transformer.”
- He also purchased ‘CDS’ against corporate debts of ‘MBIA,’ and as ‘MBIA’ crashed during the financial crisis of 2008, he made a fortune by selling the swaps.
- He then made an effort to caution the investors, regulators, and rating agencies regarding the high-risk business models of ‘MBIA.’ ‘Bloomberg News’ reporter Christine Richard wrote a book, titled ‘Confidence Game,’ on Ackman’s battle with ‘MBIA.’
- He was involved in a dispute with an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist Carl Icahn in 2003, regarding a deal involving ‘Hallwood Realty.’
- The feud resulted in a lawsuit that eventually ended in favor of Ackman after eight years.
- The court directed Icahn to pay US$ 9 million to Ackman.
- In the year 2004, he founded the American hedge-fund management company ‘Pershing Square Capital Management’ with US$ 54 million.
- The company was founded by him and his ex-business partner, ‘Leucadia National.’
- Ackman serves as the CEO and the portfolio manager of ‘Pershing,’ which conducts in-house research and employs long and short strategies to make investments in public-equity markets around the world.
- ‘Pershing’ purchased a substantial amount of the shares of the fast-food chain ‘Wendy’s International’ and forced it to sell its doughnut chain, ‘Tim Hortons.’
- In September 2006, the ‘Tim Hortons’ chain was spun off by ‘Wendy’s’ through an IPO, thereby raising US$ 670 million for the investors of ‘Wendy’s.’ A discord regarding the executive succession led Ackman to sell his shares, which garnered him considerable profit and resulted in a major collapse of the company’s stock prices.
- ‘Pershing’ acquired a 10% stake in ‘Target Corporation’ in December 2007 and presently owns a 7.8% stake.
- A 38% stake was held by his funds in the ‘Borders Group’ in December 2010.
- The fund management company revealed a 7.4% stake in ‘General Growth Properties’ (GGP) on January 9, 2009, thereby making it the second-largest shareholder after ‘Brookfield Asset Management.’
- ‘Pershing’ began acquiring shares of CPR in 2011 and indicated in a 13D regulatory filing on October 28 that year, stating that it has a 12.2% stake in ‘CPR.’
@news.yahoo.com
- The fund management company then increased its holding to 14.2%, thereby becoming the largest shareholder of ‘CPR.’
- He suggested a replacement of the chief executive of CPR, Fred Green, and eventually got involved in a proxy fight with the railway company, which resulted in E. Hunter Harrison becoming its new CEO on 29th June 2012.
- Other investments of ‘Pershing’ include substantial ownership stakes in ‘J.C. Penney’ in 2010 and a 1% stake in ‘Procter & Gamble,’ which reduced by late 2013.
- ‘Pershing’ also acquired a 9.9% stake in ‘Chipotle Mexican Grill’ in September 2016.
- He manages the funds of the British investment trust ‘Pershing Square Holdings,’ which was launched by ‘Pershing’ in December 2012.
- It makes long-term investments in North American companies.
- ‘Pershing’ took a $1-billion short position in ‘Herbalife,’ a developer and marketer of weight-loss and vitamin supplements.
- He came up with a research report in December 2012, criticizing the multi-level marketing business model of the corporation, describing it as a “pyramid scheme.”
- Although ‘Herbalife’ denied such allegations, it came under the probe of the ‘US Federal Trade Commission’ and the state of Illinois in March 2014.
- That year, he spent US$ 50 million on a public-relations campaign against the corporation.
- ‘Herbalife’ settled the matter with the ‘US Federal Trade Commission’ in July 2016 by agreeing to alter its business model and to pay its distributors an amount of US$ 200 million.
- The 2016 presidential election in the US saw him endorsing Michael Bloomberg as a potential candidate in the presidential race.
- In November 2017, he told Reuters that he had covered his short-sell position, but would continue to bet against Herbalife using put options with no more than 3% of Pershing Square’s funds.
- On 28th February 2018, he exited his near billion-dollar bet against Herbalife after the company’s stock price continued to rise, choosing to build his position in United Technologies instead.
Who is the Wife of Bill Ackman?
Source: @pagesix.com
Bill Ackman is a married person and he was married to Karen Ann Herskovitz who is a landscape architect. The duo married on 10th July 1994. The duo is blessed with three children. Due to some reasons, the duo divorced on 22nd December 2016. After the divorce, Bill Ackman engaged in Neri Oxman in the year 2018. Oxman and Bill married in January 2019 at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan, and they had their children in Spring 2019. As of now, the duo is living a happy life without any disturbances. His sexual orientation is straight.
How much is Bill Ackman’s Net Worth?
Bill Ackman is a very famous investor. Moreover, he is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. As of February 2020, his net worth is estimated to have the US $1.6 Billion. As he is an investor, he does not require any salary. He is at a great height in the path of success. He is living a luxurious lifestyle from his earnings.
Body Measurements of Bill Ackman?
Bill Ackman is a very handsome investor with a tall height of 1.8 m. His balanced weight consists of 75 Kg. Whereas his other body measurements such as waist size, biceps size and more will be added once we get information about it. Overall, he has got a healthy body with a charming personality.
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