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Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is preparing a public listing of his hedge fund company Pershing Square Capital Management in a stock market debut that could come early next year.

Ackman had told some existing investors in his $21bn in assets hedge fund and begun speaking with advisers about the listing plans, said two people briefed on the matter. The listing could come as early as the first quarter of 2026, said one of those people.

The people cautioned that the talks were at a preliminary stage and could ultimately be delayed or not lead to a public offering depending on market conditions. Pershing Square declined to comment.

An IPO of his investment firm would culminate a more than decade-long pursuit by Ackman to turn Pershing Square from a volatile hedge fund partnership into a broader financial institution he has compared to Berkshire Hathaway.

Ackman is one of the world’s best-known hedge fund managers with large stakes in corporate giants including Uber, Alphabet, Amazon and Hilton. His hedge fund has returned 17 per cent for the year to November 18, buoyed by this year’s rally in tech stocks and a surge in the value of long held bets in US housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Pershing Square differentiates itself from other hedge fund managers by holding concentrated positions in just a few stocks.

Roughly a decade ago, Ackman raised about $4bn through a London-listed public vehicle, which has transformed into the bulk of Pershing Square’s overall assets as investors pulled money from his traditional hedge fund strategies.

Last June, Ackman began laying the groundwork for a possible IPO by selling a 10 per cent stake in Pershing Square at a valuation just over $10bn to a group of investment firms, family offices and billionaire investors.

The high valuation rivalled those assigned to private equity groups that have gone public in recent years, including TPG and CVC Capital Partners. TPG listed in early 2022 at a roughly $10bn valuation, while CVC had a €15bn valuation when it listed last year.

Pershing Square’s primary business is overseeing a closed-end fund that manages more than $15bn of assets and pays Ackman’s hedge fund a 1.5 per cent management fee on those assets and lucrative performance fees. If the IPO is successful, it would be the first big hedge fund to go public in more than a decade.

Ackman previously tried to launch a US closed-end fund called Pershing Square USA last year, but a deal fizzled out after fundraising expectations cratered from about $25bn to $2bn.