Bill Ackman’s said he sold nearly $835 million in shares of the snack food maker Mondelez.
The announcement comes one day after Ackman’s hedge fund Pershing Square’s investment in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International sank 51 percent Tuesday, losing $1 billion in value. Valeant’s revenue and earnings guidance “shocked the market, ” in Ackman’s words.
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In 2015 shares of Mondelez, the company spun off from Kraft, gained around 21 percent.
In an email Wednesday Ackman told investors he owned an approximately 105 million Mondelez shares and derivatives combined.
Earlier this week Ackman reported that to-date his hedge fund Pershing Square was down 26 percent.
Read the full text of Ackman’s email below.
Dear Pershing Square Investor:
After the close, we completed a block sale of 20 million shares of Mondelez International. As a result of the sale, we now own a 5.6% stake in the company, are the third largest owner, and have substantial uninvested cash. We reduced our stake because Mondelez had become an outsized position in light of its initially large size and its outperformance relative to other holdings. We continue to believe in the potential for operating improvements and margin expansion that we expect will lead to substantial further increases in value. As a result, it remains our largest exposure. We are reducing the position size for portfolio management purposes only.
We have carefully reviewed the balance of our holdings and have concluded that they are appropriately sized. As such, we have no current plans to sell any of our other investments.
Please call the investor relations team or me if you have questions about the above.
Sincerely,
Bill