Bill Ackman Calls On Universal Music Group to Move Listing to U.S.
Written by djfrosty on November 8, 2024
Billionaire hedge funder and Universal Music Group board member Bill Ackman called for UMG to move its stock listing and legal headquarters to the United States from Amsterdam after violent attacks on Israeli soccer fans overnight in the Dutch capital.
Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema said fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked and “pelted with fireworks” overnight by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” after the city’s AFC Ajax soccer team beat Maccabi in a Europa League match. At least five people were treated in hospital, Reuters reports.
Ackman, UMG’s second-largest shareholder, said on X that moving UMG’s domicile—where the company pays taxes—and where it is publicly traded from Amsterdam to the United States will have “highly material benefits” and will align the company with “moral principles.”
“Leaving a jurisdiction that fails to protect its tourists and minority populations combine both good business and moral principles,” Ackman wrote in the post which he began by writing he is seeking board approval to move Pershing Square’s listing to London.
“I have also begun the conversation with UMG (on whose board I sit) which is domiciled in Amsterdam as well as listed there, about moving its domicile and its listing to the United States, which will offer similar as well as other highly material benefits.”
Pershing Square Holdings, in which Ackman said his family has a 23% stake, owns a 10.25% of UMG’s stock. Vincent Bollore, the former chairman of Vivendi, owns 1% of UMG.
Ackman said Pershing Square will exercise its “contractual right to cause UMG to be listed in the US… and achieve a US listing for UMG no later than some time next year.”
Ackman said UMG trades at a discount and with limited liquidity in part because its primary listing is on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, not the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. It is also not being eligible to be included in the S&P 500 index or other U.S. bellwether indices
“We are going to fix this. Now is a good and appropriate time to do so,” Ackman wrote.
UMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.