Billionaire investor Bill Ackman just took a step closer to building a conglomerate modeled on Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway , but the success of that ambition may come down to a deceptively simple ingredient, according to analysts at Piper Sandler. Ackman this week filed to list his hedge fund holding company Pershing Square Capital Management on the New York Stock Exchange. The move came after Pershing Square boosted its stake in Howard Hughes Holdings to about 47%, seeking to reshape the real-estate company into a long-term compounding vehicle similar to Berkshire, pairing insurance-generated capital with a concentrated portfolio of investments. Piper Sandler believes the success of Ackman’s ambition will depend largely on his ability to keep insurance risk low while letting investment returns do the heavy lifting.
