Bill Ackman’s blank-check company pops 9% in its trading debut
- Bill Ackman’s blank-check company, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, started trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “PSTH.”
- The company popped as much as 9% in its trading debut.
- “What’s new in our structure is it’s the first SPAC where we’re taking no compensation,” Ackman told CNBC in a Wednesday interview.
- Read more on Business Insider.
Units of Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, Bill Ackman’s record-breaking blank-check company, popped as much as 9% to $21.74 each in its trading debut Wednesday.
The special purpose acquisition firm, or SPAC, raised $4 billion in the largest initial public offering of its kind. The company, which is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “PSTH,” sold 200 million units at $20 a piece in the IPO.
In addition to its record size, Ackman’s latest SPAC is unique for another reason – Pershing Square will not take any compensation.
“What’s new in our structure is it’s the first SPAC where we’re taking no compensation,” Ackman told CNBC in a Wednesday interview.
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The fund was first announced in June and was initially slated to raise $3 billion with 150 million units for $20 a piece. But in July, Ackman raised the IPO target to $4 billion. He also committed to put up to $3 billion of his firm’s own funds into the SPAC, potentially bringing the company’s total value to $7 billion.
Now that the SPAC is public, its goal is to merge with a private company to take it public. Ackman has been down this road before – his fund Pershing Square Capital in 2011 helped Justice Holdings raise $1.4 billion, which it used the next year to merge with Burger King Worldwide and take it public.
A previous regulatory filing for the fund said that it will focus on pursuing merger opportunities with private, large capitalization, high-quality, growth companies, or so-called “mature unicorns.”
Going public through a SPAC is increasing in popularity amid market volatility this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. So far in 2020, 47 SPACs have held IPOs, raising gross proceeds of $18.3 billion, according to SPACInsider, a website tracking data on the offerings.
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