MW Bill Ackman is placing a bet on individual investors with dual Pershing Square public offerings
By Gordon Gottsegen
The hedge fund is giving away shares to any investor who buys five or more shares in the IPO of its new closed-end fund
Bill Ackman founded Pershing Square in 2004.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is taking his hedge fund Pershing Square Inc. public on Wednesday - and at the same time launching an initial public offering for a new closed-end fund.
Although hedge funds are usually the exclusive domain of wealthy investors, Pershing Square is looking to cast a wider net for its dual IPO by going directly to retail brokerages and by giving away free shares.
For every five shares of the Pershing Square USA closed-end fund that investors buy on the IPO day, they will get one bonus share of Pershing Square Inc.'s common stock. Both are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday under the ticker symbols "PSUS" and "PS," respectively.
"We are giving you 'bonus' shares in [Pershing Square Inc.] to thank you for your investment in PSUS, our first U.S.-listed investment fund, and because doing so makes good business sense," Ackman wrote in a letter addressing prospective investors.
Closed-end funds are essentially investment vehicles that trade on an exchange, giving investors access to the underlying assets. The key difference between a closed-end fund and an exchange-traded fund is that closed-end funds have a fixed number of shares, while ETFs can add shares. This means a closed-end fund can trade at a discount or premium to the underlying assets.
Examples of publicly traded closed-end funds include the Destiny Tech100 DXYZ, Robinhood Ventures Fund I $(RVI)$ and Fundrise Innovation Fund VCX.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pershing Square said that it was working with retail brokerages Robinhood Markets (HOOD) and Charles Schwab $(SCHW)$ to offer shares to customers on those platforms. By setting aside shares specifically for these brokerages, Pershing Square is going out of its way to include retail investors in its IPO at the best available price.
As the founder of Pershing Square, Ackman is well known among the retail-investor community. He has over 2.1 million followers on X, where he is known to share his views not only on markets and economics but also politics. By investing in Pershing Square's closed-end fund, individual investors get a means to match their portfolios to Ackman's investing thesis.
Ahead of the IPO, the Robinhood app features a landing page where customers can request shares of the Pershing Square USA closed-end fund. Robinhood is being given a limited number of shares and can choose, through an internal lottery system, who gets shares and how many. As Ackman prescribed, Robinhood customers will get one free share of Pershing Square Inc. common stock for every five shares they buy of Pershing Square USA.
Robinhood has listed Pershing Square USA's share price at $50 ahead of the IPO. At that price, Pershing Square is looking to raise $5 billion through the fund. Details of what the company has raised in the IPO are expected to become known on Tuesday, some time after the stock market closes at 4 p.m. Eastern time, according to Matthew Kennedy, a senior IPO-market strategist at Renaissance Capital.
"Assuming it raises $5 billion, this is would be a giant offering - the biggest public offering of the year so far. From what I can tell, it'll be the largest IPO of a closed-end fund ever," Kennedy told MarketWatch.
Following the dual IPOs, Pershing Square Inc. will manage and receive fees from Pershing Square USA, Pershing Square Holdings UK:PSH PSHZF and Howard Hughes Holdings $(HHH)$. Those entities are what are known as "permanent capital vehicles," because they don't provide opportunities for redemption. That is intended to allow Pershing Square Inc. to invest for the long term, while investors are provided with daily liquidity.
The Renaissance IPO ETF IPO has gained 7.8% in 2026 through Monday, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 4.8%.
-Gordon Gottsegen
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 28, 2026 06:18 ET (10:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments