SOTS 2nd Hour: Bill Ackman LIVE, Another Semis Surge, & Today's Earnings To Watch 4/29/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hi, I'm Jennifer Garner. Being a business owner takes hard work and a whole lot of miles. So Once Upon a Farm needed a serious business card. We chose the Capital One Venture X Business Card. With unlimited double miles on every purchase, we earn rewards on all the things we need to grow our business.

Venture X Business gives us big purchasing power so we can spend more and earn more. We redeemed miles to travel the country and partner with new stores. Capital One, what's in your wallet?

Bill Ackman (0:28)

TermSupply, see capitalone.com for details.

SPEAKER_3 (0:30)

Trading at Schwab is powered by Ameritrade, giving you even more specialized support than ever before. Like access to the Trade Desk, our team of passionate traders ready to tackle anything from the most complex trading questions to a simple strategy gut check. Need assistance? No problem. Get 24-7 professional answers and live help and access support by phone, email and in-platform chat. That's how Schwab is here for you to help you trade brilliantly.

Learn more at schwab.com/trading.

Sara Eisen (1:04)

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla and David Faber. We are live as always from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Coming up in just a moment, Pershing Squares Bill Ackman joins us as he brings his hedge fund and a new closed end fund public today here at the NYSE.

Plus it's another Supreme Court Opinion Day. We're awaiting potential decision on President Trump's authority to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. We'll bring you those headlines as soon as we get them, if we get them. And then the Senate Banking Committee is expected to vote this hour on the nomination of Kevin Warsh to become the next Fed Chair on the same day as what's expected to be Jay Powell's final meeting in the role. We'll get the latest for you from Washington. But let's get to the big event here at the NYSE today. Bill Ackman's Pershing Square debuting this morning in a combined IPO for both its new closed end fund and the investment management firm. Joining us now first on CNBC is Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman. Welcome. Good to see you.

Bill Ackman (1:58)

Thank you.

Sara Eisen (1:58)

Congratulations. So why are you doing this now? Taking these companies public?

Bill Ackman (2:03)

Well, actually, I'm an American investor, run an American company and I invest in American companies. But we don't have a way for US investors to invest with us. We didn't until today.

By bringing Pershing Square USA public, we create a way for anyone.

You can buy one share to invest with our firm. It's the democratization of capitalism, something I feel very good about. Hedge funds are known for managing money for rich people. Now we have the opportunity for someone with $50 can be a long-term shareholder.

Sara Eisen (2:37)

That was a big deal for you, getting retail investors involved in this. You did a YouTube presentation, you did I think a podcast with Vlad Tenev of Robin Hood, and you got some allotment there. Why retail investors and what's your sense of what demand is going to be like there?

Bill Ackman (2:51)

Well, this is a very unusual, while we basically we took the body of a closed-end fund, but we look nothing like other closed-end funds in terms of scale, in terms of governance, in terms of strategy, in terms of performance. The average equity closed-end fund over the last eight years has generated a 7 percent return. We've generated a 25 percent return over the same period per annum. So it's a very different kind of animal.

Why now? Your question?

Sara Eisen (3:19)

Yeah. I mean, why demand for retail?

Bill Ackman (3:23)

Actually, it was the point I was trying to make, which is typical closed-end fund, 99 percent of the buyers are retail. It's really like a financial product that sold to financial advisors and they put it in a client's portfolio.

This was a, we did this like a traditional IPO.

80 plus percent of the investors are actually institutions. Most of them, family offices, pension funds, insurance companies, very sophisticated investors. None of them had ever before invested in a closed-end fund. We took this structure, which is an amazing structure. I never looked at closed-end funds. What's unique about closed-end funds, you can buy minority stakes in companies, you can buy controlling stakes in companies, you can use derivatives to hedge risk, and there's only one layer of tax. Typical corporation, there's corporate tax, and then there's tax when you pay a dividend. So it's the most tax-efficient corporation, it's the most flexible corporation, but no one's ever used it for the purpose we're using it for.