Pershing Square Capital Management, Bill Ackman’s hedge fund, has sold some of its many shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Valeant is the drug company which Ackman valiantly defended in 2015, backing up his support with considerable quantities of money.
Last November Pershing owned close to 10 percent of Valeant, up from the 5.7 percent of shares it owned previously. Today, after selling off about 5 million shares, Pershing has a still considerable 8.5 percent of Valeant’s shares.
The year-end sell-off apparently had more to do with tax liability than concern about the stock’s volatility. Pershing stated in the regulatory filing that the shares were sold to “generate a tax loss for their investors.” That is to say that Pershing’s losses on Valeant shares can be used to offset taxes that might be owed on the fund’s other investments.