Bill Ackman Takes a Large Stake in Nomad Foods

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management has revealed a large equity stake in Nomad Foods, a London-based special-purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) created to acquire food businesses across Europe. The Ackman-led $20 billion hedge-fund management firm paid $350 million to acquire a 21.7 percent stake in Nomad Foods, Forbes reports.

Nomad Foods was co-founded by Noam Gottesman and Martin Franklin last year in London. The company rapidly moved to acquire several European food companies. Last month the firm bought the frozen-food company Iglo Foods for $2.9 billion. Iglo is Europe’s largest frozen-food producer. In 2014, frozen-food giant controlled estimated 3.3 percent of the global frozen-foods business. After buying Iglo, Nomad Foods was reportedly in talks to acquire another big frozen-food manufacturer, Findus. A combination of Iglo and Findus could create a huge frozen food empire with a wide product range.

The details of the recent transactions relating to Nomad Foods were revealed in a filing made in the London Stock Exchange. According to the disclosure, Pershing Square crossed the 20 percent threshold in the UK-based acquisition vehicle on May 26.

Bill Ackman founded Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004. The 49 year-old hedge fund manager has made some high-profile investments in large corporations including McDonlands, JC Penney and Target Corporation.