Pershing Square Portfolio (multi-position annual update)
Pershing Square delivered 40.4% net in 2014 — Allergan's sale to Actavis, Herbalife's 50% drop and Seifi Ghasemi's Air Products turnaround — and IPO'd PSH for permanent capital.
Thesis
Pershing Square's 2014 annual update recaps a 40.4% net return year (vs. 13.7% for the S&P 500) and introduces Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. — a $2.8bn Euronext-listed closed-end vehicle giving the firm permanent capital. The portfolio narrative is led by Allergan: Pershing partnered with Valeant in a 9.7% co-bidder stake, an unsolicited $153 offer triggered a sale to Actavis at $219, lifting the stock 71% in-year. The Herbalife short fell 52% in 2014 amid FTC, DOJ, FBI, NY/IL AG probes and worldwide volume points collapsing from +13% to 0%. Air Products rose 32% under new CEO Seifi Ghasemi, who is pushing EBIT margins from 16% toward Praxair's 22.5%. Canadian Pacific (Hunter Harrison) and the Burger King/Tim Hortons merger round out the year.
The three reasons
- 1
Pershing Square, L.P. returned 40.4% net in 2014 vs. 13.7% for the S&P 500
- 2
PSH IPO raised $2.8bn of permanent capital, lengthening Pershing's investment runway
- 3
Allergan ($219 sale to Actavis), Herbalife short and Air Products turnaround drove the year
KPIs cited
Pattern membership
Precedents cited
- CN Rail transformation under Hunter Harrison (template for CP)
- Rockwood / BOC turnarounds under Seifi Ghasemi (template for APD)
- Praxair operating model (peer benchmark for APD margins)
Composition what's on the 81 slides
Slide gallery ·
Notes
Fund-level annual investor update, not a single-target campaign deck. Covers Allergan, Herbalife (short), Air Products, Canadian Pacific, Restaurant Brands International (Burger King/Tim Hortons), Platform Specialty, Zoetis, Howard Hughes, Fannie/Freddie. Author credited as the firm only (Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.) — no Ackman signature on cover. SCQA fields nulled because there is no single thesis (per guidance for fund-level updates). Notable rhetorical device: Herbalife slide quotes Chairman's Club distributor Stephan Gratziani admitting 'a level of inauthenticity' — insider-quote-contradiction pattern. APD vs Praxair margin gap (16% vs 22%) is asserted in text, not as a chart, so contains_peer_gap_chart is false. Annotated stock-price timeline charts (HLF, Allergan, CP, APD) are the most reusable slides. Many gray section-divider pages inflate page count.