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 $1.45 billion and $1.51 billion. Pershing Square acquired its original 10% UMG stake in 2021 for $3.9 billion.
“We decided to sell a portion of our UMG position today,” Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman wrote on X on Thursday (March 13). “UMG has substantially outperformed the rest of our portfolio (other than the GSEs) year to date in light of its extremely strong recent results.“
Pershing Square owns 7.6% of UMG’s outstanding shares after buying a stake from Vivendi in 2021, prior to UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange that same year. Following the sale, UMG will account for approximately 17% of Pershing Square’s portfolio, down from approximately 27% before the sale.
Separately, UMG will be a dual-listed company in 2025, as Pershing Square plans to sell a portion of its UMG stake on a U.S. exchange. The listing will occur by September, according to a UMG statement in January. In November, Ackman announced his plan to take UMG public to a U.S. exchange by selling a portion of Pershing Square’s stake. The decision came after Israeli soccer fans were attacked in Amsterdam, which resulted in Ackman de-listing Pershing Square shares from the Amsterdam exchange and urging UMG to do the same.
“[UMG CEO Lucian Grainge] and the UMG team have done a superb job growing the company,” Ackman, a director on UMG’s board, continued on X. “We believe UMG is one of the best businesses we have ever owned…In a world of uncertainty, owning a royalty on music with the best management team in the industry is a blissfully comfortable and profitable place to be.“
This story originally appeared on Billboard
