Pershing Square Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Pershing Square plans to grow through portfolio compounding and selectively launch new permanent-capital vehicles. Its first planned launch, Pershing Square Ventures, is targeted for late 2026 and may invest across private companies from earlier-stage businesses to firms nearing an IPO. PSUS is approximately 95% invested after raising $5 billion , with holdings including Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alcon, Netflix, Visa and Mastercard.

Pershing Square also plans to pursue investment-grade leverage equal to roughly 15%–20% of total assets. Pershing Square intends to address PSUS’s discount to NAV through expanded marketing, with NAV near $50 per share versus trading in the high-$30s. The company expects to return substantially all quarterly free cash flow through dividends, while continuing to develop Howard Hughes’ insurance business and evaluate SPARC opportunities.

Pershing Square held its first earnings call as a public company, with Chairman and CEO Bill Ackman emphasizing the firm’s strategy of generating growth through the compounding value of its existing investment portfolios while selectively launching new vehicles. Ackman said the firm’s permanent-capital structure and portfolio of what he characterized as high-quality businesses could support growth even without additional fundraising. He said rising net asset values in the funds Pershing Square manages would increase management and performance fees over time, while cautioning that stock-price multiples can be volatile on a quarterly basis.

“If we never raise another investment vehicle,” Ackman said, Pershing Square expects the underlying companies in its portfolio to compound at a high rate over time. He added that the firm expects portfolio holdings to be volatile in the short term but believes they are attractively valued.

Pershing Square’s first planned new fund launch will be Pershing Square Ventures, which Ackman said is targeted for the fall or end of 2026. The firm did not provide a targeted fundraising amount and said future launches would be episodic rather than tied to a set timetable.

Ackman said the venture vehicle would invest across a broad range of private companies, from businesses valued in the several-hundred-million-dollar range to companies valued in the tens of billions of dollars. The strategy is expected to include both earlier-stage companies and businesses nearing public offerings. Unlike traditional venture funds, which often sell or distribute positions after portfolio companies go public, Ackman said Pershing Square Ventures would be structured as a permanent-capital vehicle that could remain invested through a company’s public-market life cycle. He said the firm sees strategic value in venture investing beyond returns, including gaining insight into potential technological disruptions that could affect its core public-equity investments. Ackman also said Pershing Square plans to seed the vehicle with investments before raising capital from investors, though he said the firm was limited in what it could disclose until it files relevant documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ackman and Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel said market volatility around Pershing Square’s U.S. vehicle, PSUS, created an attractive opportunity to deploy capital. Ackman said PSUS is approximately 95% invested after raising $5 billion in a volatile market environment. The executive...