pershing square holdings
Bill Ackman, whose hedge fund Pershing Square Capital has been among Universal Music Group’s largest investors, said he will resign from his seat on UMG’s board of directors effective Wednesday “due to new executive and board obligations arising from his recent investments,” according to a company statement. In a brief announcement posted Wednesday hours ahead […]
Chinese streaming platform Tencent Music Entertainment grew its stake in the world’s largest music company, Universal Music Group (UMG), by picking up a direct 2% equity holding worth $327 million in March, the company said on Tuesday (May 13).
While it did not identify the seller — described in Tuesday’s filings only as “one of our associates” — Pershing Square sold 50 million shares of UMG on March 13, raising about $1.3 billion, according to filings and research reports. Tencent Music and Pershing Square did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The news means that Tencent Music and UMG each own notable stakes in each other’s companies, as UMG owns a 0.79% stake in TME as of Dec. 31 that’s currently worth $181.2 million.
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Tencent Music has been an investor in UMG since March 2020, when it joined a consortium of investors led by its parent company, Tencent Holdings. That consortium accumulated a 20% stake in UMG from UMG’s parent company, Vivendi S.A., between 2020 and 2021, of which Tencent Music owned a 10% share, according to filings.
This March, that consortium “completed a transfer of the UMG shares held by the consortium to its members,” which resulted in Tencent Music acquiring a direct 2% equity interest in UMG, according to its annual report.
Tencent Music, which reported first-quarter revenue of 7.36 billion Chinese yuan ($1.01 billion) on Tuesday, recognized “other gains” worth 2.44 billion Chinese yuan (US$336 million), of which the UMG stock comprised 2.37 billion Chinese yuan (US$327 million), according to filings.
Pershing Square has been an investor in UMG since 2021, and though the mid-March stock sale reduced its stake in UMG to 4.9% from 7.6%, the music company remains the hedge fund’s largest single holding, comprising 17% of its capital.
The sale came ahead of Pershing Square’s plan to register its UMG shares in the United States in September. Pershing Square head and UMG board member Bill Ackman has advocated for the company to move its primary listing from the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange to a U.S.-based exchange, saying it would add value for the company.
Hedge fund Pershing Square Holdings is parting with 50 million shares of one of its most prized assets, Universal Music Group (UMG). The sale of 50 million shares — approximately 2.7% of UMG’s outstanding shares — on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, at 26.60 euros ($28.97) to 27.90 euros ($30.28), according to Bloomberg, would gross between […]
Pershing Square Holdings chief Bill Ackman won’t get his wish of a Universal Music Group (UMG) de-listing from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, but the hedge fund king’s push for a UMG listing on a U.S. exchange will nevertheless come to fruition in 2025. UMG announced Wednesday (Jan. 15) that Pershing Square and some of its […]
Billionaire hedge fund investor and Universal Music Group director Bill Ackman is a step closer to de-listing his Pershing Square Holdings from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, a move that Ackman — whose Pershing Square company has owned around 10% of stock in the Universal Music Group since 2021 — has advocated for UMG to do, too.
The Euronext Amsterdam approved a plan for Pershing Square Holdings to de-list, with the closed-end fund’s last day of trading to be Jan. 30. The investment vehicle will consolidate trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange, where it was co-listed in 2017 and where the majority of its trading happens.
Ackman and his family own more than 20% of the fund, and in November he advocated for moving the fund and UMG’s listing from the main Netherlands’ stock exchange after fans of an Israeli soccer team were attacked in early November in Amsterdam.
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UMG said at the time that it will review and decide what is in the best interests of all shareholders.
In a separate announcement on Thursday, Pershing Square said it distributed around 47 million shares of Universal Music Group stock, or roughly 2.6% of its overall stake, to investors as part of a planned wind-down of one of the funds Pershing Square initially used to purchase UMG shares from Vivendi in September 2021.
Pershing Square, which managed the closed-end fund called PSVII, said it decided to distribute, rather than cash out, the UMG stock “because we believe that UMG stock is substantially undervalued at its current share price, and the tax-free stock distribution enables our limited partners to continue to own UMG shares.”
Pershing Square continues to own around 140 million shares, equal to a 7.6% stake in UMG, through its core funds — Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd., Pershing Square, L.P. and Pershing Square International, Ltd. — Bill Ackman, Pershing Square employees and other affiliates, according to a company statement. UMG is still Pershing Square’s largest single holding.
As of Dec. 31, Pershing Square said UMG has had a total return of “46% including dividends over the approximately three-and-one-quarter-year life of the investment.” The company said that is better than “the S&P 500’s 37% return and the Amsterdam Exchange Index’s return of 21% over the same period.”
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