Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am. He's done on Apple, Cocklay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
We want to first talk a little bit about an IPO that's coming up later this month. Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor, has kicked off formal marketing for the IPO of his closed end fund and his hedge fund. And this is something Billy Lipscheltz has been covering for us here as our initial public offering Reporter, Billy, this is not Bill Ackman's first go round with an IPO for his hedge fund and his closed end fund, is it?
No, it's not really When you look at how this has been playing out in kind of a mission that they've been attempting to kind of achieve. You go back to twenty twenty four when he set out to raise twenty five billion dollars, then cut it to two billion, and ultimately pulled the plug on that. This is now a kind of reinvigorated, rethought out strategy where he will raise money between five and ten billion dollars for the closed end fund, and if you participate in that, you
get a stake in Perching Square proper. So trying to incentivize to get this deal across the finish line, something that they were not successful doing call it two years ago.
Why is he doing it and why is he doing it now?
Billing He's doing it to bolster Assets Center Management, so he has a fund listed in Europe. You generate fees no matter what off a closed end fund. It's not like an ETF where you can face some of the redemption issues. So bolstering their AUM, bolstering the fees that they're going to generate from this product, among others, reason to go public. This has been something they've talked about for quite some time, so it kind of is a litmus test, if you will. There's obviously been a lot
of debate why do people go public? What do they want to achieve? At least from the pitch for Perching Squares to try to bring potential wealth to retail investors. But certainly a bit of the skeptics see this kind of similar to some of the other strategies we've seen the likes of a Carlisle or Kkartake over the last decade or so, and Billy just.
Remind us of how Bill Ackman's strategy has shifted over the years, because once upon a time he was a big activist investor and he's kind of morphed into more trying to be like a Warren Buffett, you know, taking these big stakes and other companies for long term investments.
Walk us through what that has looked like. It's been a big shift.
To your point, we all remember herbal life in the back and forth between Acman and Icon, and now if you look at the holdings, whether it's in his fund or in the European listed closed end fund, we're talking about some positions in some pretty big companies. You've got Amazon dot Com, Howard Hughes, Google, Uber, Meta, some of the bigger names. Obviously, he's been very vocal about Fanny and Freddie and trying to bring them both public and
obviously would benefit from that. So when you look at kind of the development of his career, he very much has leaned into trying to be able to turn Pershing Square into a modern version of Berkshire Hathaway. And interestingly enough, obviously Buffett is stepped away from Berkshire. So now maybe is this a perfect time, at least from the actman camp to step into that spotlight and be kind of a person who can be an investor that folks look
at as a north star. Obviously, it remains to be seen and this will be a key test of that. But to your point, we've seen a big shift.
So Bareley, what's the expectation here for this offering? Is this going to be a retail led type of offering or does this have a lot of institutional demand?
What do we know it'll be retail lad They've laid out that they have a good chunk a few billion dollars kind of earmarked for institutional investors, family offices and
kind of that. Like, but the big pitch really is for this to be raised predominantly again, maybe not predominantly two point eight billion dollars secured from qualified investors according to Pershing Square, but it is catering to retail investors and that's why you're seeing it take such a long road show, launching today, expected to price on April twenty eighth. You typically would see in a normal roadshow about seven
to eight days. This is more than two weeks and the big pitch is being able to interact with the retail investing crowd, much like they try to do a few years ago, and trying to get people to agree
that this is a good investment for them. But if you've paid attention to Bill Ackman and kind of his ventures and adventures if you will, on X and Twitter, very much trying to lean into the average investor, and that was something they pitched again back in twenty twenty four, trying to build pushing into something similar to Berkshire Hathaway where they would have, you know, a Carnival esque event every year where people could who are investing in the
fund could actually be able to meet and interact with.
Management and Bailly.
So far, no indication that the uncertainty the geopolitics of it is going to put them off in terms of pursuing this IPO.
No, and they marched forward. And I think that was one of the things.
I can't remember if Actman put it on X or set it in a podcast or something, was kind of pitching that, well, you know, the time to deploy assets is when markets are pulling back, and this actually fits into the strategy in the kind of broader scheme of what they want to do, and again just try to simplify the fact that at least from the Pershing Square corner in the Pershing Square camp, if you launch this deal and do have a longer road show, you know
that there is uncertainty and there is a lot of kind of issues with the geopolitical backdrop. But they're continuing to push forward on that. Ultimately, what does this look like. We'll continue to keep an eye on that over the next two weeks, but again it'll be key to see how this price is and what they actually bring in house on April twenty eighth, because just a few weeks ago in March, Robin Adventures tried to raise a billion dollars for a closed nd fund and fell about thirty
percent short of their target. So certainly not the layup that many people might have thought.
Stay with us more from Boomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, cocklay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
A lot of geopolitics on the front burner, of course. But it is still earnings season right now. We've got the big banks kicking off earnings today. Goldman Sacks put out some numbers here.
I thought the numbers.
I'm an equities guy, so I looked at their equity line first, and they just crushed it.
A little bit light relative to.
Expectations on the fixed side, the fixed income sign but those are bond people who really cares. But anyway, it's a big business. It's a big business. But let's check in with Neil Sites. He covers his stuff for a Bloomberg Intelligence, you know, talk to us about Goldman Sachs and the quarter they just released.
Yeah, So I think the general broad strokes is that the core capital markets business is firing right as we sort of entered this quarter, this quarter's results, we obviously saw markets in flux, right, and obviously plenty of uncertainty down the pike here, But ultimately a lot of volatility in the quarter, particularly inequities and fixed income products mostly geared towards the later quarter, and so there was sort of a high bar coming into these results in expectations
for a trading legs sort of beat and Frankly, we saw that really come through in the equities business. Now on fixed income, that's where the bigger miss has sort of overshadowed strength in other categories for Goldman and so, you know, a lot of that relates to specific products. Obviously, when you have volatility, it's not always perfectly positive volatility for the trading business, so a little bit of sort
of you know mix within that. And then when you look at the investment banking business, I mean M and A, ECM, debt fees, all of those beat expectations. That was a big story heading into twenty twenty six was the expectation for capital markets for debt issuance, equity issuance, particularly IPOs and M and A to come back firing. The first
quarter was solid. The backlog has dipped a little bit from a four year high in the prior quarter, so coming off a little bit part of that is due to when you have such strong results, things come out of the backlog. But I think the bigger question as we move forward is with the elevated volatility that's positive to trading, that tends to be not so helpful for
the investment banking side. So how our clients transacting early in the second quarter is a key question, and Goldman says they remain engaged.
So when it comes to that surprise drop in fixed income trading, do we think that that's Goldman specific or is that something that could have a read through to the other big banks.
Yeah, I think that's what we're sort of going to be looking very closely at. It feels that it could be a little bit unique to Goldman. Again, it depends on the actual positioning within this business. When you look at some of the other large piers in the space, JP, Morgan, Bank of America, City Group, they all sort of guided to mid teens growth across the trading business for the first quarter, and that guidance came in early mid March. So the expectation is this could be a Goldman unique
scenario where fixed income trading revenue was particularly weak. But we'll have to watch, right. I mean again, volatility tends to be positive for the trading business, but it's not a perfect relationship, and so we'll have to be watching, particularly given the sort of high bar and the expectations coming in that trading was going to be so strong.
Hey, Neil, I'm thinking about twenty twenty six could be just a monster, monster year for IPOs.
Here.
I'm thinking SpaceX, maybe some of these AI names like Anthropic. What are some of the big investment banks saying about that opportunity?
Yeah, and I think that is that is a big opportunity in the offing, right. I think a lot of it now relates to, Okay, these IPOs are coming at what pace? Will they come right? And so are these twenty twenty six stories are they first half, second half? Or do things get kicked into twenty twenty seven? If you know, the uncertainty that we're living through today prolongs and it sort of causes sponsors and strategics to sort of put pencils down and sort of reassess that that opportunity.
Goldman noted IPOs a little bit softer in March. I don't think that surprises anyone, right, just given the volatility. I think they remain bullish moving forward on that business. So I think it's just going to be a timing question of rather when, not necessarily if. But of course, you know plenty of uncertainties still out there, so that remains the big question.
Has David Solomon, the CEO, said anything about the geopolitical uncertainty, the war and Iran and what that means for business prospects overall.
Yeah, I think he has hinted at that sort of that same sentiment right where the volatility keeps clients engaged. So it's again positive to the trading as you think about how you have to have institutional clients have to reposition or allocate for a much wider range of outcomes and scenarios when we're sort of going through what we've
had with AI, scare trades, software concerns, now war. That all sort of creates a pretty good backdrop for the intermediation type business when we have market that you know, frankly are still only a handful of percent off of all time highs. That's really strong. For the financing business that Goldman's been growing in. That was a really bright
spot for the equities business in the first quarter. They're continuing to deploy balance sheet into that business, so they see an opportunity to sort of lean into client needs and client demands in this environment. Albeit cautioning that you know, there's a big uncertainty piece out there.
Neil, thanks so much, really appreciate it, Neil site he covers all the big banks for and investment banks for Bloomberg Intelligence.
We appreciate getting some of his time there.
Stay with us.
More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Cocklay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
We're back here on site at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey.
Our first guest on site, which is very cool.
Cassie Hallberg joints that she's the CEO of NJI backed startup Pure Trace Labs.
Cassie, thanks so much for being with us.
I'm looking at the backgrounds and the reading material that Scarlett and I have for all our guests today and one theme runs through it and I don't know what that theme is, but that theme is pfas. Can you tell us what PFAS is or are absolutely so.
P FAS is sometimes referred to as forever chemicals. They were crazy useful chemicals that were developed after World War two because they are water resistant and heat resistant, so you may know them. From your nonstick cookware or from your rain proof rainwear. The problem that we've got with p fas is that they have gotten out into the
environment and they've gotten into the americans bloodstreams. So ninety eight percent of Americans haven't our bloodstream and unfortunately, it is associated with health conditions such as cancer, birth defects in for utility, even high cholesterol. And one of the things that we're trying to understand is how do we
do a better job of locating it? And other companies are also working on how do you do a better job of destroying this because the chemical bonds are very strong and they've proven very, very persistent in our environment.
Okay, so talk us.
Through what Pure Trees Labs that your CEO of does when it comes to pfs Absolutely.
So.
One of the challenges with pfas has been testing for them. Our current methodology for testing takes two to three weeks, is very labor intensive, so it's very expensive. It costs anywhere from five to eight hundred dollars, and that means that for the average homeowner, like you can't test your own water. Even though the EPA believes that up to half of Americans have p fats in our water, and
so that's basically created a problem. So what Pure Trace Lab has been able to do through a wonderful invention by doctor Howch is use mass spectrometry and paper spray mass spectrometry to be precise in order to test for pfas and he can do it in under three minutes and with very little labor, and so we can do it at a fraction of the costs. So we like to say we can do it in minutes versus weeks, and we can do it at a third of the cost of what the current current methodologies are.
So what is the market here for any type of p FASS detection treatment? Is it something that would be done at the consumer level or the industrial level? Is just like just doing a radon test that I have to do for when I buy my home in New Jersey.
I love the analogy with rate on because it's one we use often.
So yes, the answer is yes.
Industry needs it because they need to be checking that it's not in our consumer packaging. The municipalities need to be doing it to make sure it's not in our water, Our farmers need to be doing it to make sure it's not in their soil, because if it's in the soil, it's going to get into the it's going to get into the food. So so you know, what we're doing and focusing in on is taking a first little bite, which is can we bring this to the homeowner market.
We know that just under half of all households in America have p fasten their water. In New Jersey, we believe that that's up to actually eighty about eighty four percent. So we've got the ability to give homeowners the ability to actually test at a very reasonable price. And then, more importantly to your point about Radon, we've got the ability to give it to home inspectors. Traditionally, home inspectors can't wait two to three weeks for a test result.
But if we can get them a test result within one to two days, they can put this into the real estate transaction. It doesn't mean you're going to blow up your real estate transaction because there are solutions, so you can if let's say you've got p fast in your water, there is a solution for all different budgets. You could potentially get a carbon activated water of a pitcher. You could use a carbon activated water from your refrigerator.
You can also go all out with reverse osmosis or even a home filtration system, depending on what your budget is and what you personally can do. But you can do things to remove these from your environment.
Okay, but first things first, you got to figure out how much is in there. Talk a little bit about the role that NGIT played in helping doctor Chen, whose technology this is based on, really figure out this technology.
Yeah, they were amazing because doctor Chen walked in and said, I've got this great invention.
What do I do?
You yelled Rika, And what NJIT was able to do through their partner and JII was they actually walked out and started doing some business plans and cases. Right, is there a big enough market out there that it warrants being able to commercialize this? And if you are going to commercialize it, who are you going to target? Who are you going to target first? And what does that
look like? So they basically were able to take the business aspect and marry that with a science and so many universities we've got brilliant ideas, but we don't necessarily have professors trained in business. And so what NJ is doing that's incredibly unique is they're bringing business and they're bringing technology together so that we can get those best ideas out into the marketplace.
Thirty seconds left. How hard is it to raise money these days?
We've been very lucky so far, so we've been able to We're funded via the njii's Investment Fund, and we will let you know as we find out if we need more money.
This is the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live each weekday, ten am to noon Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube and always on the Bloomberg terminal