Pershing Square Capital L.L.C made several filings with the SEC yesterday. Five of the company’s 13D filings reveal the next direction it is heading in in 2013.
Unfortunately, none of the filings mentioned Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF). That infamous trade, still not proving a big winner for Ackman, is one of the most interesting in the world right now, and will probably form an important mark on the investor’s career, no matter what way it shakes out.
The trades logged with the SEC in recent days have to do with the formation and capitalization of Pershing Square Holdings Ltd., a new fund headed by Ackman. The hedge fund has a specific path that has been laid out for it since Ackman began to talk about it in early 2012. He wants it to go public on the London Stock Exchange under ticker (LON:PSH).
According to comments Ackman made last November, the hedge fund had already accumulated assets of more than $2 billion, and was open for yet more funding. Most of that money came from existing Pershing investors who simply converted, and let their shares in existing funds be transferred. The fund will go public some time after achieving a stated minimum of $3 billion in Assets under Management.
The latest 13D filings show Ackman transferring shares in some of his most important holdings to Pershing Square Holdings Ltd.. Five companies are included in the deal, and there was no real change in the ownership of the stock, the were simply transferred to a separate vehicle inside the Pershing umbrella.
14,245,199 shares in General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) were transferred to the new company at $9.36 per share. The total value of the transfer was $282,767,200. In the same batch of filings it was revealed that Ackman had given up on his plans to sell General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) to a rival company.
Ackman’s activist run at J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) may be faltering, but he has not given up. $146,860,270 worth of the firm’s shares were transferred to Pershing Square Holdings Ltd.. That amounts to 7,451,061 shares sold at $19.21.
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. also received $242,485,270 worth of shares in BEAM Inc (NYSE:BEAM). The alcoholic drinks firm had 3,969,312 of its shares transferred to Pershing Square holdings at a price of $61.09 per share. The firm gained almost 20% in trading in 2012.
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (NYSE:CP) (TSE:CP), the center of another of Ackman’s great activist campaigns, and deliverer of great returns with more than 50% price growth in 2012, had 4,609,230 of its shares transferred at a price of $101.62 per share. The total value of the trade was $468,389,953.
The fifth and final trade involved the transfer of shares in Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE:HHC) to Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. at a price of $73.02. The trade involved 1,042,143 shares and amounted to a total value of $76,097,282.
The total value of assets transferred form other Pershing Square funds to Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. was more than $1.2 billion, quite a move for New Years Eve.
Ackman’s newest fund is ready to trade going into the New Year, and ready to go public at some undisclosed future date. It’s certain no matter how Herbalife turns out, that the maven is in for an interesting 2013.
