Bill Ackman's $5 billion Pershing Square IPO to start trading, testing Berkshire-style vision

bill ackman's pershing square ipo starts trading wednesday on the nyse, raising $5 billion at the low end of its target range. the deal was originally marketed at between $5 billion and $10 billion, a far cry from the $25 billion ackman floated two years ago. the ipo creates two separate tickers: psus for the closed-end fund and ps for the asset manager. shares of the fund were priced at $50 each. ackman said on cnbc that the deal was structured to favor retail investors over institutions — "we did the opposite" of the usual approach. the fund also omits performance fees and gives psus investors bonus shares in the management company. pershing square runs a concentrated portfolio of 10 large-cap names including amazon, uber and brookfield. since 2004, the firm has returned over 2,600% cumulatively, versus the s&p 500's roughly 836%. ackman is modeling the vehicle on berkshire hathaway, pointing to warren buffett's evolution from partnerships to permanent capital. he plans to host annual meetings where investors can ask questions directly.