Ackman’s Pershing Square Purchases 9.9% of Honolulu's Alexander & Baldwin
By Miles Weiss - Mar 31, 2011
Activist investor William Ackman, head of New York-based Pershing Square Capital Management LP, teamed up with a former associate to acquire a 9.9 percent stake in Alexander & Baldwin Inc. (ALEX), a regulatory filing shows.
Ackman and Richard McGuire, the managing member of Marcato Capital Management LLC in San Francisco, spent a total of $168.8 million to purchase 4.1 million common shares, according to a Schedule 13D filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That works out to an average of $41.04 a share.
Alexander & Baldwin is based in Honolulu and owns about 87,840 acres on various Hawaiian islands, its most recent annual report shows. The company also provides container ship service between the western U.S., Guam and China.
Ackman and McGuire “expect to engage in discussions with management, the board, and other stockholders,” according to the filing. McGuire, a former partner at Pershing Square, started his own hedge fund last year with backing from a unit of New York-based Blackstone Group LP.
Ackman invests in companies he deems undervalued and the urges changes he says will boost shareholder returns. Since last fall, he has bought stakes in Fortune Brands Inc., the maker of Jim Beam bourbon and Titleist golf balls, and J.C. Penney Co., the third-largest department store chain in the U.S.
Alexander & Baldwin shares rose 12 cents to $45.65 each at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
To contact the reporter on this story: Miles Weiss in Washington at mweiss@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
