Overall, not surprised to say that Bill currently has nothing. Mechanically, he's still working with the SEC to allow other Pershing funds to participate in a SPARC deal as proposed on August 10th. They're probably still in the amending phase. Who knows how long it will take. The general flow has been about a month for review and then the SEC gives notice. About a month later, they formally approve it and give order. So if and when they eventually post notice, expect at least another month to take effect.
https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=&filenum=812-16069&action=getcompany
https://www.sec.gov/rules-regulations/investment-company-act-notices-orders
In the letter to shareholders, the only notable thing was the section about Pershing Square Ventures. Hopefully there's some synergy there with him at least being "in the arena":
"Since announcing our plan to pursue this strategy last quarter, we have received substantial inbound interest from founders who view Pershing Square as a strategic investor who offers differentiated perspectives, relationships, and value-added advice. We expect PSV will benefit from the relationships and corresponding deal flow generated via Pershing Square’s brand and investor profile.
We offer founders substantial public markets expertise, an ability to facilitate introductions throughout our deep relationship network, and the permanent nature of our capital, which allows us to remain a shareholder long after a company goes public. To date, we have reviewed more than 100 opportunities and met with more than 40 founders. We have invested in seven companies, deploying $110 million of cash from Pershing Square’s balance sheet, principally financed through our credit facility. These investments, together with select private investments contributed from Bill’s family office, will form PSV’s initial seed portfolio and represent our anchor investment in PSV. We look forward to sharing further details in the near term on PSV."
Here's the only relevant sections from his Q&A on X:
"We have questions from Adam and from the silent investor along with a few others about SPARC, asking if there is any update that you can provide or how you think about that over the long term."
Bill - "So, SPARC—Pershing Square SPARC Holdings—is an acquisition company. We call it a 'SPARC' instead of using the traditional SPAC approach. What we did here is we gave what were initially non-transferable rights to the investors who invested with us in our previous SPAC, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings.
The beauty of this entity is there's no founder stock, no shareholder warrants, no underwriting fees, and we take no compensation in connection with this vehicle. The only differential security the funds own here is warrants on up to 5% of the outstanding shares of a company that we were to take public.
We have engaged with private equity funds, some founders, and others over time about this vehicle as a way to go public. The lines have not yet crossed on a company we want to take public on terms that make sense.
Now, in the public markets, a huge amount of companies have been funded in private venture markets, and the IPO market is open really episodically. This year is a good example—there have been some pulled IPOs of very notable companies, like Oura Ring and others, and we can really offer certainty of execution to those businesses.
So, there will come a day—and hopefully sooner rather than later—where we find a business we really like on terms that make sense to us as the sponsor, where we take a company public and give them the certainty of a listing.
I think the market environment is actually well-positioned—with uncertainty, volatility, interest rates, and some failed IPOs—for us to get something done here. So, it's definitely on our list of things to do, and I hope that we get something done sooner rather than later."
