Let’s talk about Bill Ackman’s SPAC

I am a corporate finance pleb and would like to hear from some of the people who have been working crazy hours for the last year on SPAC deals. 

For those unfamiliar- last June, Bill Ackman raised $5 billion of capital aiming to take a minority stake and take a high quality, durable, behemoth growth company public via SPAC. The structure is also more investor-friendly than most spacs, Ackman gets no founder shares (only warrants) and PSTH shareholders will receive 2 warrants for every 9 shares they own once the merger is complete.

PSTH has generated a lot of interest since then from people hopeful that Ackman can bag a whale. There is even a cult-like subreddit following Bill and $PSTH with hopes that the target is Stripe, Bloomberg, Starlink, etc. I know that sounds like quite a reach from Ackman’s current portfolio of assets, but fast food and grocers do not meet the criteria that Pershing Square said the target must have.

Last week, Bill finally gave investors a juicy update in a WSJ interview. He said that Pershing Square has been deeply engaged, since November, in a transaction with an iconic, phenomenal business and should be able to close within the next few weeks. 

Do y’all think that Bill will be able to lock in a great deal, and does PSTH still have upside as it is trading at a ~25% premium above NAV (probably less than if you factor in the 2/9 warrants).