Ackman Starts Marketing Pershing IPO to Raise up to $10 Billion

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1:59Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern. On Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts. Or watch us live on YouTube. We want to first talk a little bit about an IPO that's coming up later this month. Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor, has kicked off formal marketing for the IPO of his closed-end fund and his hedge fund. And this is something Bailey Lipschultz has been covering for us here as our initial public offering reporter.

2:38Bailey, this is not Bill Ackman's first go-round with an IPO for his hedge fund and his closed-end fund, is it? No, it's not. And really, when you look at how this has been playing out and kind of the mission that they've been attempting to kind of achieve, you go back to 2024 when he set out to raise$25 billion, then cut it to$2 billion and ultimately pulled the plug on that. This is now a kind of reinvigorated, rethought out strategy where he will raise money between$5 and$10 billion for the closed end fund. And if you participate in that, you get a stake in Pershing Square proper. So trying to incentivize to get this deal across the finish line, something that they were not successful doing, call it two years ago.

3:20Why is he doing it and why is he doing it now, Bailey? He's doing it to bolster asset center management. So he has a fund listed in Europe. You generate fees no matter what off a closed end fund. It's not like an ETF where you can face some of the redemption issues. So bolstering their AUM, bolstering the fees that they're going to generate from this product, among others. Reason to go public. This has been something they've talked about for quite some time. So it kind of is a litmus test, if you will. There's obviously been a lot of debate. Why do people go public? What do they want to achieve, at least from the pitch for Pershing Square, is to try to bring potential wealth to retail investors.

3:57But certainly a bit of the skeptics see this kind of similar to some of the other strategies we've seen the likes of a Carlisle or KKR take over the last decade or so. And Bailey, just remind us of how Bill Ackman's strategy has shifted over the years, because once upon a time, he was a big activist investor. And he's kind of morphed into more trying to be like a Warren Buffett, you know, taking these big stakes in other companies for long-term investments. Walk us through what that has looked like. Yeah, it's been a big shift. To your point, we all remember Herbalife in the back and forth between Ackman and Icon.

4:30And now if you look at the holdings, whether it's in his fund or in the European listed closed-end fund, we're talking about some positions in some pretty big companies. You've got Amazon.com, Howard Hughes, Google, Uber, Meta, some of the bigger names. Obviously, he's been very vocal about Fannie and Freddie and trying to bring them both public and obviously would benefit from that. So when you look at kind of the development of his career, he very much has leaned into trying to be able to turn Pershing Square into a modern version of Berkshire Hathaway. And interestingly enough, obviously, Buffett has stepped away from Berkshire.

5:04So now maybe is this a perfect time, at least from the Ackman camp to step into that spotlight and be kind of a person who can be an investor that folks look at as a North Star. Obviously, it remains to be seen, and this will be a key test of that. But to your point, we've seen a big shift. So, Bailey, what's the expectation here for this offering? Is this going to be a retail-led type of offering, or does this have a lot of institutional demand? What do we know? It'll be retail-led. They've laid out that they have a good chunk, a few billion dollars, kind of earmarked for institutional investors, family offices and kind of that like.

5:37But the big pitch really is for this to be raised predominantly, again, maybe not predominantly,$2.8 billion secured from qualified investors, according to Pershing Square. But it is catering to retail investors. And that's why you're seeing it take such a long roadshow. Launching today, expected to price on April 28th, you typically would see in a normal roadshow about seven to eight days. This is more than two weeks. And the big pitch is being able to interact with the retail investing crowd, much like they tried to do a few years ago, and trying to get people to agree that this is a good investment for them.

6:06But if you've paid attention to Bill Ackman and kind of his ventures and adventures, if you will, on X and Twitter, very much trying to lean into the average investor. And that was something they pitched again back in 2024, trying to build Pershing into something similar to Berkshire Hathaway, where they would have, you know, a carnival-esque event every year where people who are investing in the fund could actually be able to meet and interact with management. And Bailey, so far, no indication that the uncertainty, the geopolitics of it is going to put them off in terms of pursuing this IPO. No, and they marched forward.

6:42And I think that was one of the things I can't remember if Ackman put it on X or set it in a podcast or something was kind of pitching that. Well, you know, the time to deploy assets is when markets are pulling back. And this actually fits into the strategy in the kind of broader scheme of what they want to do. And again, just trying to simplify the fact that at least from the Pershing Square corner and the Pershing Square camp, if you launch this deal and do have a longer roadshow, you know that there is uncertainty and there is a lot of kind of issues with the geopolitical backdrop. But they're continuing to push forward on that.

7:12Ultimately, what does this look like? We'll continue to keep an eye on that over the next two weeks. But again, it'll be key to see how this price is and what they actually bring in-house on April 28th. Because just a few weeks ago in March, Robinhood Ventures tried to raise a billion dollars for a closed-end fund and fell about 30 % short of their target. So certainly not the layup that many people might have thought. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. For years, the conversation around Bitcoin was the same. Is it real? And does it belong in a portfolio? While others debated, CoinShares got to work.

7:50In 2015, they launched the world's first Bitcoin EDP, regulated, listed, and built for institutional investors. Long before the U.S. market caught up. Today, they manage over$6 billion in assets and have remained profitable through every market cycle, including the 2022 downturn. What sets them apart? They're not a crypto exchange chasing trading fees, not a company betting its balance sheet on Bitcoin, not a mining operation. CoinShares is an asset manager with recurring fees, a fixed cost base, and a business model you can actually model. Now listed on NASDAQ under ticker CSHR. Learn more at coinsharesipo.com.

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10:27Right now, we've got the big banks kicking off earnings today. Goldman Sachs put out some numbers here. I thought the numbers – I'm an equities guy, so I looked at their equity line first, and they just crushed it. A little bit light relative to expectations on the fixed side, the fixed income side, but those are bond people. Who really cares? But anyway, it's a big business. It's a big business. But let's check in with Neil Seitz. He covers his stuff for Bloomberg Intelligence. You know, talk to us about Goldman Sachs and the quarter they just released. Yeah, so I think the general broad strokes is that the core capital markets business is firing, right?

10:59As we sort of entered this quarter, this quarter's results, we obviously saw markets in flux, right? And obviously plenty of uncertainty down the pike here. But ultimately, a lot of volatility in the quarter, particularly in equities and fixed income products, mostly geared towards the later quarter. And so there was sort of a high bar coming into these results in expectations for a trading led sort of beat. And frankly, we saw that really come through in the equities business now on fixed income. That's where the bigger miss has sort of overshadowed strength in other categories for Goldman. And so, you know, a lot of that relates to specific products.

11:39Obviously, when you have volatility, it's not always perfectly positive volatility for the trading business. So a little bit of sort of, you know, mix within that. And then when you look at the investment banking business, I mean, M &A, ECM, debt fees, all of those beat expectations. That was a big story heading into 2026 was the expectation for capital markets, for debt issuance, equity issuance, particularly IPOs and M &A to come back firing. The first quarter was solid. The backlog has dipped a little bit from a four year high in the prior quarter. So coming off a little bit, part of that is due to when you have such strong results, things come out of the backlog.

12:19But I think the bigger question as we move forward is with the elevated volatility that's positive to trading, that tends to be not so helpful for the investment banking side. So how are clients transacting early in the second quarter is a key question. And Goldman says they remain engaged. So when it comes to that surprise drop in fixed income trading, do we think that that's Goldman specific or is that something that could have a read through to the other big banks? Yeah, I think that's what we're sort of going to be looking very closely at. It feels that it could be a little bit unique to Goldman.

12:53Again, it depends on the actual positioning within this business. When you look at some of the other large peers in the space, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, they all sort of guided to mid-teens growth across the trading business for the first quarter. And that guidance came in early, mid-March. So the expectation is, you know, this could be a Goldman unique scenario where fixed income trading revenue was particularly weak, but we'll have to watch, right? I mean, again, volatility tends to be positive for the trading business, but it's not a perfect relationship. And so we'll have to be watching, particularly given the sort of high bar and the expectations coming in that trading was going to be so strong.

13:35Hey, Neil, I'm thinking about 2026 could be just a monster, monster year for IPOs here. I'm thinking SpaceX, maybe some of these AI names like and philanthropic. What are some of the big investment banks saying about that opportunity? Yeah. And I think that is a big opportunity in the offing, right? I think a lot of it now relates to, okay, these IPOs are coming. At what pace will they come, right? And so are these 2026 stories, are they first half, second half, or do things get kicked into 2027 if the uncertainty that we're living through today prolongs and it sort of causes sponsors and strategics to sort of put pencils down and sort of reassess that opportunity.

14:19Goldman noted IPOs a little bit softer in March. I don't think that surprises anyone, right, just given the volatility. I think they remain bullish moving forward on that business. So I think it's just going to be a timing question of rather when, not necessarily if, but of course, you know, plenty of uncertainty is still out there. So that remains the big question. Has David Solomon, the CEO, said anything about the geopolitical uncertainty, the war in Iran, and what that means for business prospects overall? Yeah, I think he has hinted at that sort of that same sentiment, right, where the volatility keeps clients engaged.

14:57So it's, again, positive to the trading as you think about how you have to have institutional clients have to reposition or allocate for a much wider range of outcomes and scenarios when we're sort of going through what we've had with AI scare trades, software concerns, now war, that all sort of creates a pretty good backdrop for the intermediation type business. When we have markets that, you know, frankly, are still only a handful of percent off of all time highs, that's really strong for the financing business that Goldman's been growing in. That was a really bright spot for the equities business in the first quarter.

15:34They're continuing to deploy balance sheet into that business. So they see an opportunity to sort of lean into client needs and client demands in this environment, albeit cautioning that, you know, there's a big uncertainty piece out there. Neil, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Neil Seif, he covers all the big banks and investment banks for Bloomberg Intelligence. We appreciate getting some of his time there. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. Support for the show comes from Public. Public is an investing platform that offers access to stocks, options, bonds, and crypto.

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19:15you're listening to the bloomberg intelligence podcast catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m eastern on apple carplay and android auto with the bloomberg business app listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on youtube we're back here on site at the new jersey institute of technology in newark new jersey our first guest on site which is very cool cassie uh hallberg joins us. She's the CEO of NJIT-backed startup PureTrace Labs. Cassie, thanks so much for being with us. I'm looking at the backgrounds and the reading material that Scarlett and I have for all of our guests today, and one theme runs through it, and I don't know what that theme is, but that theme is PFAS.

19:54Can you tell us what PFAS is or are? Absolutely. So PFAS is sometimes referred to as forever chemicals. They were crazy useful chemicals that were developed after World War II because they are water resistant and heat resistant. So you may know them from your nonstick cookware or from your rainproof rainwear. The problem that we've got with PFAS is that they have gotten out into the environment and they've gotten into the American's bloodstream. So 98 % of Americans have in our bloodstream. And unfortunately, it is associated with health conditions such as cancer, birth defects, infertility, even high cholesterol.

20:36And one of the things that we're trying to understand is how do we do a better job of locating it? And other companies are also working on how do you do a better job of destroying this because the chemical bonds are very strong and they've proven very, very persistent in our environment. Okay. So talk us through what PureTrace Labs that you are CEO of does when it comes to PFAS. Absolutely. So one of the challenges with PFAS has been testing for them. Our current methodology for testing takes two to three weeks. It's very labor-intensive, so it's very expensive. It costs anywhere from$500 to$800.

21:12And that means that for the average homeowner, you can't test your own water, even though the EPA believes that up to half of Americans have PFAS in our water. And so that's basically created a problem. So what PureTrace Labs has been able to do through a wonderful invention by Dr. Hao Chen is use mass spectrometry and paper spray mass spectrometry to be precise in order to test for PFAS. And he can do it in under three minutes and with very little labor. And so we can do it at a fraction of the cost. So we like to say we can do it in minutes versus weeks, and we can do it at a third of the cost of what the current methodologies are.

21:59So what is the market here for any type of PFAS detection treatment? Is it something that would be done at the consumer level or the industrial level? Is this like just doing a radon test that I have to do when I buy my home in New Jersey? I love the analogy with radon because it's one we use often. So yes, the answer is yes. Industry needs it because they need to be checking that it's not in our consumer packaging. The municipalities need to be doing it to make sure it's not in our water. Our farmers need to be doing it to make sure it's not in their soil because if it's in the soil, it's going to get into the food supply.

22:34So what we're doing and focusing in on is taking a first little bite, which is can we bring this to the homeowner market? We know that just under half of all households in America have PFAS in their water. In New Jersey, we believe that that's up to actually about 84%. So we've got the ability to give homeowners the ability to actually test at a very reasonable price. And then more importantly, to your point about radon, we've got the ability to give it to home inspectors. Traditionally, home inspectors can't wait two to three weeks for a test result. But if we can get them a test result within one to two days, they can put this into the real estate transaction.

23:14It doesn't mean you're going to blow up your real estate transaction because there are solutions. So you can, let's say you've got PFAS in your water. There is a solution for all different budgets. You could potentially get a carbon-activated water pitcher. You could use a carbon-activated water from your refrigerator. You can also go all out with reverse osmosis or even a home filtration system, depending on what your budget is and what you personally can do. But you can do things to remove these from your environment. Okay, but first things first, you've got to figure out how much is in there.

23:48Talk a little bit about the role that NJIT played in helping Dr. Chen, whose technology this is based on, really figure out this technology. Yeah, they were amazing because Dr. Chen walked in and said, I've got this great invention. What do I do? He yelled, Eureka. and what NJIT was able to do through their partner NJII was they actually walked out and started doing some business plans and cases. Is there a big enough market out there that it warrants being able to commercialize this? And if you are going to commercialize it, who are you going to target? Who are you going to target first? And what does that look like?