Aug 13, 2026 earnings call — Strategy, new venture, and capital plans
Pershing Square says its fee-paying assets base is about $23 billion and it raised $5 billion, with NAV roughly $50 per share.
Revenue $0.1B (est $0.1B) · EPS $0.14 (est $0.13)
Key quotes
"Our first fund launch will be Pershing Square Ventures. I would say we're targeting kind of fall, end of year timing, for that entity."
"we like a capital structure for PSUS, which is basically 15% to 20% debt to total assets."
"our dividend policy is to return substantially all of the kind of free cash flow that we generate on a quarterly basis to our shareholders."
Analyst Q&A 9
Timing of new fund launches
Q (Craig Siegenthaler · BofA): When will you raise future funds, and how big will they be, including asymmetric crossover and opportunistic funds?
A: They said they have no fixed timetable. Their first planned fund is Pershing Square Ventures, targeted for kind of fall, end of year timing, and future launches will be episodic and depend on performance of existing entities.
"I would say we're targeting kind of fall, end of year timing, for that entity." — William Ackman (CEO·CHAIR)
Market volatility and capital competition
Q (Matthew Heimermann · Citi): How did Q2 market volatility shape the PSUS portfolio and did you face strong competition for deploying capital? Also, when will you add investment-grade leverage to PSUS and how big?
A: They said volatility gave them attractive buying opportunities and they were fortunate to deploy capital into discounted names; they have a large library of ideas and select securities one-by-one. For leverage, they want roughly 15% to 20% debt to total assets, will seek ratings meetings early September and plan to launch that offering soon.
"And so we're always sort of making this calculation of price to value based upon following these companies, seeing what we think the potential returns are over a longer time period." — Ryan Israel (CIO)
Low equity risk premium
Q (Dominick Gabriele · Loop Capital): With a low equity risk premium now, how do you manage risk and set expectations for returns?
A: They said they focus on individual companies rather than market-wide metrics and run a concentrated portfolio to find attractively priced, high-quality businesses. They also point out equities have a growth profile vs bonds, and their portfolio shows higher earnings yield plus nearly double earnings per share growth versus the market.
Venture strategy and PSUS trading
Q (Robert Ryan · Wells Fargo): Will Pershing Square's venture vehicle be late-stage or mixed, and what happens after portfolio companies go public? Also, how do you view PSUS trading vs NAV and will that affect future vehicles?
A: For the venture vehicle they plan a mix of companies from several hundred million valuations up to multi-$10 billion decacorn range, seeding it so investors know holdings and offering permanent capital to retain long-term ownership post-IPO. On PSUS trading they said the current trading is poor, they will increase marketing to advisers and other efforts to fix demand, but trading level doesn't prevent launching differentiated future vehicles.
"So it's going to be actually a reasonably broad spectrum of companies in the several hundred million market cap or valuation range, doing the multi-$10 billion -- the $10 billion decacorn kind of range." — William Ackman (CEO·CHAIR)
Hedging and tail risk
Q (Daniel Fannon · Jefferies): Will you use hedges for tail risks now? Do you have hedges on and what risks are you watching?
A: They said asymmetric hedges are episodic and applied only when economically attractive to protect against rare, big 'black swan' events; they currently have no hedges on but continuously evaluate dozens of instruments and would act if an attractive hedge opportunity appears.
"As we talked about in the letter, the asymmetric hedging strategy in terms of actually having on hedges is sort of by the construct going to be episodic because we are really trying to look out for and then hedge when it's economically feasible, what we kind of would call the black swan risk, the real market moving sort of paradigm-shifting type things that occur pretty infrequently, but when they do, they're very big." — Ryan Israel (CIO)
Dividends and capital returns
Q (Kenneth Lee · RBC): Any update on capital returns and dividends in the near term?
A: They said their policy is to return substantially all free cash flow each quarter; given current market dynamics and supply/demand of PSI shares, dividend distribution is the most likely near-term capital return, though they remain opportunistic for buybacks or other uses.
"Given kind of the current market dynamics and the supply and demand of the PSI shares, I think the dividend distribution is the most likely thing that investors should be expecting for the foreseeable future." — Ryan Israel (CIO)
Howard Hughes strategy and Vantage
Q (Matthew Heimermann · Citi): How much capital and resources will Marc and David have for Vantage, and will you change Howard Hughes disclosures to show Vantage progress?
A: They said they recruited a top management team and will prioritize monetizing assets and deploying capital into Vantage to accelerate insurance growth; they already provide supplements and plan more disclosure so investors can track Vantage like any public insurer.
"And the company generates approaching $300 million of net operating income from its real estate assets." — William Ackman (CEO·CHAIR)
PSUS vs PSH and AI CapEx
Q (Edmundo Yépez · Armada Capital): How should investors choose between PSUS and PSH? Also, how do you assess terminal P/E and hyperscaler CapEx and ROIC in the AI cycle?
A: They explained PSUS and PSH have different tax and fee attributes: PSH is tax-efficient offshore but unsuitable for U.S. persons due to PFIC rules; PSUS has lower fees and no incentive fee and will likely add modest leverage. On AI and hyperscalers, they said heavy CapEx now is upfront and earnings will follow over years as capacity comes online, improving margins and lowering CapEx-to-sales later.
"If you're a U.S. person today, the tax characteristics of PSH make it really not a security that you want to own." — William Ackman (CEO·CHAIR)
SPARC status and use
Q (Bran Raskovic · Raskovic Holdings): What is the current status and plan for SPARC, and how does it fit with opportunities to invest via public vehicles?
A: They said SPARC is an efficient acquisition-rights structure Pershing Square backs to take private companies public at a fixed price with no SPAC negatives; they have not closed a deal yet but see growing deal flow and economics (warrants) flow to Pershing Square funds if a transaction occurs.
"It's -- think of it as an acquisition company without the negative attributes of a SPAC." — William Ackman (CEO·CHAIR)