Hedge fund mogul flashes behind the female singer Taylor

Bill Ackman, a heavyweight figure in the Wall Street hedge fund circle.

In 2004, he founded Pershing Square Capital Management, known for its activist investing, pushing for corporate reforms and even complete "makeovers" by holding large stakes.

Ackman's investment portfolio is highly concentrated, with only a few companies "holding the fort."

Pershing Square's performance has been remarkable, achieving an annualized net asset return of 15.90% since its inception by the end of 2024.

Now, with assets of $17.5 billion, Pershing Square has not slowed down its investment pace but has accelerated!

Since the beginning of 2025, two major transactions have caught the market's attention!

A recent share sale has intricate business ties with the pop diva Taylor Swift (known as "Mei Mei" among Chinese fans)······

Selling Shares for Funding

It is reported that Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management confirmed on March 13, 2025, the sale of part of its shares in Universal Music Group (UMG).

Specifically, Pershing Square sold approximately 50 million shares of the company at a price of €26.60 per share. After the sale, Pershing Square's stake in UMG will decrease from about 7.48% to 4.8%.

This transaction allows Ackman's firm to raise approximately $1.4 billion, equivalent to 10.1 billion yuan.

Notably, market information interprets Ackman's move as a fundraising effort rather than a nominal profit from the sale.

It is reported that Pershing Square has a registration rights agreement with Universal Music Group, granting it the right to request a secondary listing in the United States, and Pershing Square needs to sell at least $500 million worth of UMG shares.

Combining the aforementioned information, Ackman's action can be seen as "exceeding" the agreement, raising $1.4 billion, which surpasses the minimum requirement of $500 million.

In fact, Universal Music Group went public on the Euronext Amsterdam in September 2021 and plans to list part of its shares on the U.S. securities market in 2025 for a dual listing.

Universal Music Group is the largest recorded music company in the world and the second-largest music publishing company. From 2020 to 2021, a consortium led by Tencent acquired a 20% stake in the company through two transactions.

The Diva's "Financial Backer"

Ackman's transaction target has close commercial ties with Taylor Swift.

Today, Taylor is a globally renowned pop diva, with a musical style that spans country, pop, rock, and more. Her global concert tours have become a symbol of economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, marking the highest-grossing tour by an artist in history, with a total economic impact of over $10 billion Behind Taylor's "concert economy," the beneficiary is precisely Universal Music Group, with their cooperation beginning in 2018 and signing an exclusive global recording agreement. In 2020, Taylor also signed an exclusive global publishing agreement with a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

In other words, Universal Music Group is Taylor's "employer."

Universal Music Group has not separately disclosed Taylor's direct contribution to the company's profits. However, insights into Taylor's impact on the company's performance can be gleaned from the company's financial report data.

The financial report shows that Universal Music Group achieved revenue of €11.834 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, with net profit reaching €2.086 billion, a year-on-year increase of 65.7%; in 2023, the company achieved revenue of €11.111 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.1%, with net profit of €1.626 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44.50%.

The above growth data is primarily attributed to the company's strong performance in music recording and music publishing businesses.

Notably, these two fiscal years coincide with the period when Taylor has made a significant impact in the global music scene.

Additionally, Universal Music Group expects that by 2028, the company's core profit annual growth rate will exceed 10%, with subscription revenue annual growth rate expected to be between 8% and 10%.

Ambition to Build a "Berkshire"

In fact, Ackman has another capital operation plan in 2025 that has attracted market attention, targeting Buffett's Berkshire company.

In mid-January of this year, Ackman's Pershing Square sent a letter to the board of Howard Hughes Holdings, a real estate development company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ackman began investing in Howard Hughes Holdings when it went public in 2010, and Pershing Square has become the largest shareholder of the company, holding a 37.6% stake (as of mid-January this year).

However, Ackman is not satisfied with the results of this long-term investment that has lasted for 15 years.

In the aforementioned letter to the board, Pershing Square bluntly stated: "Since the company went public, the stock price has only achieved a total return of 35%, with an annual compound return rate of only 2.2%, and the company has never paid dividends."

In fact, in August 2024, Ackman also considered privatizing Howard Hughes Holdings, which means delisting it from the public market and transferring the company's shares to a limited number of investors. However, this plan did not materialize.

Months later, Ackman's team proposed a new plan: a merger transaction, in which Pershing Square would merge with Howard Hughes Holdings through its wholly-owned subsidiary.

According to Ackman's "calculation," once the merger is completed, Pershing Square and its affiliated funds will hold more than 60% of the merged company, and the executive team of the former will fully "settle in" the merged company, with Ackman serving as the co-chairman and CEO.

It is worth noting that Pershing Square also plans to inject $900 million in cash into the merged company for the acquisition of new companies and assets. According to Ackman's vision, the aforementioned capital operations are not "simple," but rather have great and clear ambitions.

“The merged Howard Hughes Holdings will become a diversified holding company similar to Berkshire Hathaway. Pan Xing Square plans to utilize the cash flow and other capital resources of its subsidiaries to achieve business diversification through the acquisition of new operating companies and other assets,” Pan Xing Guangxing wrote in this letter.

It seems that Ackman is playing a "big game," attempting to emulate Buffett's path of "transforming" Berkshire.

Buffett is the "Oracle of Omaha" sought after by global investors, and his investment platform, Berkshire, is a diversified holding company centered around insurance, which originated as a textile company.

After acquiring it in 1965, Buffett gradually transformed it into an investment empire covering insurance, energy, railroads, and retail, actively participating in U.S. stock investments through a long-term holding strategy. Today, Berkshire has a market value of over one trillion dollars, with a total market value of its stock investment portfolio at 272 billion dollars, close to 2 trillion yuan (as of the end of December 2024).

"Activist Investing" Known Worldwide

In the history of Pan Xing Square's stock investments, high concentration and activist investing are important characteristics.

This fund's key holdings include: Brookfield Corporation (alternative asset management + insurance company), Chipotle Mexican Grill (Mexican fast-food chain), Nike, and others.

In addition, Ackman actively intervenes in company management, promoting strategic reforms to unlock shareholder value.

The aforementioned "transformation" of Howard Hughes Holdings is an example of an activist investment strategy, questioning the company's market recognition and promoting transformation.

Tracing back to 2014, Ackman pushed for the merger of Burger King with Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons, elevating the new entity to become one of the top three fast-food chain operators globally.

Another major holding of Ackman, the Mexican restaurant company Chipotle, faced food safety issues in 2015. Subsequently, Ackman bought a large number of shares during the stock price plunge and pushed for a change in management to improve operations.

Going back to 2011, Ackman initiated a proxy battle over the mismanagement issues at Canadian Pacific Railway, becoming the largest shareholder and successfully reorganizing the board.

In other words, after Ackman heavily invests in stocks, he usually does not passively hold them but actively participates in changes.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

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