No one is more fond of impishly taunting his own investors with allusions to big mystery investments than Bill Ackman. The Ack-Man takes real glee in getting on an investor call and getting real flirty about giving over a big piece of his portfolio to something that he isn’t ready to get specific about just yet.
Whether it was the Hong Kong dollar or ADP or Berkshire Hathaway, Bill seemingly lives to keep all the normos guessing about the thing that only he can see. But in the last few years, that pleasure has seemed to wane a bit, replaced with something more urgent, more needy, more desperate. Now, thanks to the love magic that fuels his soul, Ackman is back to his coquetteish best, batting his eyes at what appears to be a pretty major mystery bet:
Pershing Square Holdings, the £3bn listed fund run by renowned activist investor Bill Ackman, has invested 8% to 9.5% of its money in a new, undisclosed position — and shareholders will hope for something “stirring” to improve the market’s view of the stock, one analyst said.
Ackman confirmed the new holding on an investor call late on November 4, saying: “Our next largest investment is an undisclosed investment, and we are not going to provide detail on that yet.
“It comprises between 8% and, call it 9.5%, of the portfolio that we manage. It’s not yet a full position and, opportunistically, we intend to increase it. I do think we will be likely in a position to discuss it by the next quarter.”
The new Bill Ackman is a youthful, loved, optimistic, smiling, vegan, new dad who probably says things like “Namaste, fam” to the younger kids at Pershing Square. What kind of investment appeals to Ackman 2.0 and has enough quantifiable upside to justify hundreds of millions of dollars and tickling his still-queasy investors with a feather?…
Holy shit, you guys, Bill Ackman is going all-in on Etsy!
Ackman’s mystery bet must excite more than Buffett, analyst says [FN]