Bill Ackman Just Can’t Stop Talking About Carl Icahn

• April 17 2018
• Scott Deveau

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s bad year has given him lots of worries about his own investments. Addressing a conference Tuesday, he saved his sharpest words for an old foe in somebody else’s fight.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s bad year has given him lots of worries about his own investments. Addressing a conference Tuesday, he saved his sharpest words for an old foe in somebody else’s fight.

Ackman criticized Newell Brands Inc. for striking a deal with fellow billionaire Carl Icahn to avoid a proxy fight with Starboard Value, the activist fund run by Jeff Smith.

“The company was so afraid of losing a proxy contest that they made a deal with the devil so to speak,” Ackman said Tuesday, responding to a question during a fireside chat at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York. “I meant that in the most positive way about Carl.”

A Newell representative declined to comment. A representative for Icahn wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Starboard, which owns 3.8 percent of Newell, launched a proxy fight at the company in February to replace the entire board. Its efforts were undercut last month when Icahn, who is Newell’s third-largest shareholder with a stake of about 7 percent, struck a deal that would give him seats on the board while the company accelerates its transformation plans.

‘Desperate Attempt’

Smith has previously called Newell’s agreement with Icahn a “desperate attempt to hand outsized influence to one shareholder in order to entrench management.”

Ackman, who finally admitted defeat this year in his years-long fight with Icahn over a $1 billion short position in Herbalife Ltd., criticized his rival for nominating five Newell board candidates with ties to him, including his son, Brett Icahn.

“It’s not a board that this audience would elect for its independence,” Ackman said. His investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, doesn’t own shares of Newell, according to its latest regulatory filing.

Ackman took some time to discuss his own investments, including his troubled bet on Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Ackman said there was plenty of opportunity to improve the performance of Chipotle under its new Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol, including introducing desserts and breakfast, extending its hours and adding drive-through windows.

“There hasn’t been innovation at Chipotle in a decade,” he said. “That’s really going to change.”

‘Locos Tacos’

Niccol was appointed CEO in February and joined the company from Taco Bell, where he was credited with courting new customers with indulgent dishes such as Doritos Locos Tacos and A.M. Crunch Wraps.

“This company hasn’t had any innovation but people keep coming back to the store,” Ackman said. “Imagine if it’s run as a best-in-class restaurant company.”

Ackman also said he was excited about this investments in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae since the value of the companies have increased alongside the recovery in the housing market and a more favorable regulatory environment.

Ackman could use some good news after the Herbalife defeat and a disastrous $4 billion loss on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

Pershing Square’s assets under management fell to about $8.2 billion at the end of March, from $18.3 billion in 2015. About two-thirds of the capital that investors could have withdrawn from its private funds was redeemed at the end of last year, a person familiar with the matter has said.