Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management is investing $900 million into Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HHH), enabling it to acquire 9 million newly issued shares of the company.
The investment increases Pershing’s stake in Howard Hughes to 46.9% from its current 37.6%. Following the investment, Ackman has been named executive chairman of the HHH board of directors while Pershing Square’s Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel will become HHH’s chief investment officer, a new senior leadership role. The HHH leadership team, led by CEO David O’Reilly, will remain unchanged with expanded roles and responsibilities.
“I am delighted to return to HHH as its executive chairman with the addition of Ryan to assist in transforming the Company to a diversified holding company,” said Ackman. “HHH has built substantial value for shareholders in recent years that has largely gone unrecognized due to the high cost of capital that the market assigns to the Company in light of its pure-play exposure to real estate development and community creation. We believe that HHH is a superb platform to build a faster-growing, high-returning holding company that will acquire control of companies that meet Pershing Square’s criteria for business quality and durable growth. We are looking forward to working with David and the rest of the HHH team in creating long-term value.”
