Pershing Square portfolio (multi-target)
Pershing Square delivered 40.4% net returns in 2014, driven by Allergan's forced sale to Actavis, Herbalife's 52% decline, and Canadian Pacific's continued transformation under Hunter Harrison.
Thesis
Pershing Square's 2014 annual update recaps a 40.4% net return year anchored by Allergan, where a February JV with Valeant led to a 9.7% stake at $128/share and culminated in Allergan's $219 sale to Actavis, a 75% premium to cost. The firm's multi-year Herbalife short paid off as regulatory probes (FTC, DoJ, state AGs) and deteriorating volume points drove HLF down 52% from its January high. Canadian Pacific, now three years into Hunter Harrison's transformation, hit a 64.7% operating ratio and reaffirmed a $17 EPS / $10bn revenue 2018 plan, while Air Products installed Seifi Ghasemi as CEO and began a margin expansion toward ~22.5%. The deck also documents the $2.8bn October PSH Euronext IPO that converted roughly 36% of AUM to permanent capital, freeing Ackman from redemption pressure as the activist universe expands.
The three reasons
- 1
40.4% net returns in 2014 vs. S&P 500 13.7%, led by Allergan, Herbalife short and CP
- 2
Allergan sold to Actavis at $219/share, 75% premium to Pershing Square's $128 cost
- 3
$2.8bn PSH Euronext IPO converted 36% of AUM to permanent capital
KPIs cited
Pattern membership
Precedents cited
- CN Rail transformation under Hunter Harrison (template for Canadian Pacific)
- Rockwood Holdings under Seifi Ghasemi (ROC TSR 320% vs. S&P 106%)
- BOC industrial gases leadership (Seifi Ghasemi prior tenure)
Slide gallery ·
Notes
Fund-level annual investor update, not a single-target thesis deck — recaps 2014 performance across the Pershing Square portfolio (Allergan, Herbalife short, CP, APD, Restaurant Brands, Platform, Zoetis, HHC, Beam, P&G, GGP) and documents the October 2014 PSH Euronext IPO that created permanent capital. The Herbalife section is the strongest contrarian-short specimen inside the deck: 'It's a Pyramid Scheme' framing, Chairman's Club member Stephan Gratziani's 'eventual deception' quote used against management, and an annotated 2014 timeline of regulatory catalysts (FTC civil probe, DoJ/FBI, IL/NY AG) overlaid on the 52% price decline. Allergan, CP, and APD sections use annotated timeline price charts linking shareholder events to price moves — a stealable Pershing Square visual convention. SCQA fields left null because fund-level updates lack a single thesis.