The Ackman Cometh

bill ackman
Pershing Square USA is yet another way for Ackman to accumulate more permanent capital, as he likes to say—emulating his hero Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway model. Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
July 24, 2024

Next week, if the markets agree, Bill Ackman will probably be successful in standing up the largest ever closed-end equity fund with an I.P.O. expected to raise as much as $10 billion. He’s calling it Pershing Square USA, and it would actually be the largest closed-end fund by a factor of at least two, and the first issuance of a closed-end fund since 2022.