Bill Ackman vows to yank fund from stock exchange after Amsterdam soccer thugs target Jewish fans
Billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman on Friday vowed to pull his Pershing Square firm from the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam after sick soccer thugs ran amok to target Israeli fans in a string of anti-Semitic attacks in the Netherlands.
Jew-hating agitators violently assaulted supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Dutch city before and during their game against elite club Ajax that saw more than 60 people arrested on Thursday night and left 10 people injured.
Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi’s traveling faithful had been “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” around the city by what she branded as “Antisemitic hit-and-run squads.”
Ackman, who is Jewish, wrote on X that he would “seek approval” from Pershing’s board to “eliminate its listing” from the Euronext exchange.
“Events in Amsterdam during the last 24 hours provide an appropriate tipping point for this conclusion,” he added. “Leaving a jurisdiction that fails to protect its tourists and minority populations combine both good business and moral principles.”
The Democrat donor-turned-Donald Trump supporter said he had long been considering a move to the London Stock Exchange because that is where his firm makes most of its trades.
The 58-year-old hedge fund manager also claimed that he was already in discussions with Universal Music Group (UMG) about switching its own listing from the Netherlands to the United States.
His Pershing Square funds own a roughly 10% stake in the music and entertainment giant, making Ackman one of the company’s biggest shareholders. He also sits on its board.
“Pershing Square has a contractual right to cause UMG to be listed in the US. We will exercise this right and achieve a US listing for UMG no later than some time next year,” he said on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The global music titan counts Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, U2 and Rihanna among its artist roster.
The Post has approached Euronext and Universal Music Group for comment.
The billionaire Harvard graduate was one of the loudest voices calling for now-deposed president Claudine Gay to stand down over the anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas protests on campus earlier this year.
Ackman has also been a vocal critic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, known as DEI, that claims to promote minority rights, calling it “a racist and illegal movement.”
Earlier this year, he yanked a planned New York Stock Exchange listing for his Pershing Square USA fund after investor demand fell short of expectations.
The idea was to create a so-called closed-end fund, meaning shareholders can only pull back if someone else buys their stock.
Ackman rose to prominence in 2012 with a disastrous $1 billion short of Herbalife, the dietary supplements firm, with rival activist Carl Icahn taking a opposite stance on the company’s future.
The pair then had an infamous row live on CNBC the following year.
