Billionaire investor Ackman seeks delisting from Amsterdam exchange after attack
Hedge fund manager says he’ll delist investment firm Pershing Square from Euronext following riots and antisemitic violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said he will advance a delisting of investment firm Pershing Square Holdings and a move of record label Universal Music Group (UMG) from the Amsterdam stock exchange following the violent attacks by local Arab and Muslim gangs on Israeli soccer fans over the weekend.
In a post on X on Friday, Ackman stated he will be seeking approval from Pershing Square’s board, citing the “events in Amsterdam” as an “appropriate tipping point for this conclusion.”
On Thursday night, Israeli soccer fans came under an apparently organized, widespread attack by anti-Israel rioters in Amsterdam following a match. Israeli officials said 10 citizens were injured as the Israeli tourists were ambushed by gangs of masked assailants who shouted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted, beat and harassed them.
The leaders of Israel and the Netherlands condemned what they called antisemitic attacks on the fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv before and after the Europa League soccer match between their team and Ajax.
Pershing Square Holdings, in which Ackman and his family own a 23 percent stake, is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam N.V. and the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Ackman said the board had been considering the move because its second listing on the LSE represents more than 90% of trading and that “now is a good and appropriate time to do so.”
“Concentrating the listing on one exchange, the LSE, and leaving a jurisdiction that fails to protect its tourists and minority populations combine both good business and moral principles,” Ackman said. “We can also save money and improve liquidity for shareholders to boot.”
Ackman also announced that he was in talks with UMG, on whose board he sits, to move its listing and domicile from Amsterdam to the US, which “will offer similar as well as other highly material benefits,” he said.
“Pershing Square has a contractual right to cause UMG to be listed in the US,” Ackman declared. “We will exercise this right and achieve a US listing for UMG no later than sometime next year.”
In response, UMG said in a statement on Saturday that Pershing’s Ackman does not have the right to request that the record label become a US-headquartered company or delist from the Amsterdam stock exchange.
“Pershing has the right to request a listing in the US subject to a Pershing entity selling at least $500 million in UMG shares as part of the listing,” UMG said. “While the company will endeavor in good faith to comply with its contractual obligations with respect to undertaking the process of a US listing at the request of Pershing, any actions or decisions beyond those necessary to comply (including any decisions to change the domicile of the company) will be based on an analysis taking into account what is value maximizing and in the best interests of all the shareholders of the company.”
Ackman, a Harvard alumnus, has over the past year been a vocal campaigner on X and led a campaign criticizing Harvard University as it has been rocked by turmoil over practices related to antisemitism, plagiarism and financial management.
In January this year, Ackman and his wife, Israeli-born designer and academic Prof. Neri Oxman, acquired an almost 5% equity stake in the Tel Aviv bourse at an investment of $25 million.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, which erupted following the Hamas-led massacre in the south of the country on October 7 last year, in which some 1,200 people were slaughtered and 251 were taken hostage by terrorists, Ackman has repeatedly spoken out publicly to express his support for Israel and call for the release of the captives.
