Can Social-Media Fame Power an IPO? Bill Ackman Is About to Find Out.

The billionaire investor plans to stage a unique double listing Wednesday, taking public both a new stock-picking fund, Pershing Square USA, and his hedge-fund management company, Pershing Square. To attract investors, he is offering free shares of Pershing Square to anyone who buys into Pershing Square USA.

By the time orders closed late Monday, Pershing Square USA was on track to raise $5 billion, the low end of Ackman’s targeted range of $5 billion to $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. More than 80% of demand came from institutional investors, rather than individuals, some of the people said.

Ackman built a following beyond Wall Street in recent years as a social-media commentator on issues ranging from university-campus protests to New York City’s mayoral election. The idea behind the new fund was to capitalize on this name recognition by raising money from everyday people who can’t normally invest with a prominent hedge-fund manager.

Individual investors play a central role in determining how newly listed companies’ shares trade but can be unpredictable. Their enthusiasm can either send shares soaring in early trading as more investors pile in or send the stock lower if those who invested in the IPO decide to sell.

This is Ackman’s second attempt at launching Pershing Square USA, known by its planned ticker, PSUS. He aborted an earlier attempt in 2024 after lukewarm investor interest. Even raising nearly $1 billion from individuals, as it appears Ackman might, would be a feat.

This time around, he has been pulling out all the stops to attract so-called retail investors. Pershing Square dropped the minimum purchase order from $5,000 to $250. It struck deals with retail brokerages Charles Schwab and Robinhood to offer shares to their vast user bases. Ackman appeared on a podcast with Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev and visited some banks’ wealth-management offices to pitch financial advisers.

Investors tend to be wary of so-called closed-end funds such as PSUS. Such funds often trade at a discount to the value of their underlying assets for a variety of reasons, from fund expenses to future tax bills.

Ackman manages a London-listed closed-end fund, Pershing Square Holdings, that has long traded at a discount. Unlike PSUS, that fund can’t be marketed directly to individual investors stateside.

Ackman played up in the investor roadshow what he believes makes PSUS distinct from other closed-end funds, including respected members of its board and an in-person annual meeting. He also agreed to give investors one share in his hedge-fund management company, Pershing Square, for every five shares purchased of PSUS.

Matt Ostrowski, a 57-year-old from Bozeman, Mont., is generally a fan of Ackman for his embrace of Warren Buffett’s investing style. Ostrowski owns shares in Howard Hughes, a real-estate company that Ackman bills as his version of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, and an exchange-traded fund that mimics Pershing Square’s portfolio.

But Ostrowski decided against participating in the PSUS IPO because of the chance the shares will trade at a discount after they list.

“To me, it sounded a little risky at the start,” Ostrowski said Monday. “Maybe picking it up later on is a better option.”

Ackman set his sights lower this time compared with 2024, when he initially aimed to raise $25 billion, then lowered the target to around $2 billion before mothballing the listing entirely.

He lined up $2.8 billion in anchor commitments ahead of time from investors including pension funds, insurers, family offices and ultra-high-net-worth investors. Pershing Square itself planned to invest $150 million in the offering and subject itself to a 25-year lockup agreement.

The firms making anchor commitments got an even sweeter deal of 1.5 Pershing Square shares for every five PSUS shares they bought. They also agreed not to sell their shares for at least six months.