Ackman wants to move Pershing Square, UMG from Amsterdam after attacks

Pershing Square Holdings

08/11/2024 19:06

AMSTERDAM, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Billionaire Bill Ackman
said on Friday he would seek to delist investment firm Pershing
Square Holdings  PSH.AS  and move record label Universal Music
Group  UMG.AS  away from Amsterdam, following attacks on Israeli
soccer fans.
    In a statement on X, Ackman said Pershing Square's board had
already been considering the move and "events in Amsterdam
during the last 24 hours provide an appropriate tipping point"
to follow through.
    In the attacks, supporters of Israeli football club Maccabi
Tel Aviv were targeted after a match, by what Amsterdam's mayor
described as "antisemitic hit and run squads".
    Pershing Square, an investment holding company in which
Ackman and his family own a 23% stake, is also listed on the
London Stock Exchange and most trading takes place in London.
    "Concentrating the listing on one exchange, the LSE, and
leaving a jurisdiction that fails to protect its tourists and
minority populations combines both good business and moral
principles," Ackman wrote in a message on X. 
    "We can also save money and improve liquidity for
shareholders to boot."
    Ackman said he had separately begun talks with United Music
Group, on whose board he sits, to move its listing and
headquarters to the United States.


 (Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Bart Meijer)
 ((toby.sterling@thomsonreuters.com;))