Billionaire hedge fund manager and founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, Bill Ackman, on Wednesday, 19 November 2025, revealed his $300 billion three-step plan, which highlights a way for American taxpayers to gain from the listing of government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are both government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that the US President Donald Trump-led federal government aims to list on the benchmark stock indices through an initial public offering (IPO).
What's Bill Ackman's plan?
The billionaire investor and Pershing Square Capital CEO, Bill Ackman, in his recent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac relisting presentation, recommended that this is not the right time to sell a portion of the Treasury’s GSE shares in a public offering.
According to Ackman's plan, the US Federal Housing Department (FHFA), along with the federal government's Treasury Department, can follow the three steps to enable the Trump administration to achieve its GSE objectives.
The report also suggested that keeping the GSEs in conservatorship eliminates timing pressure, maximises optionality, while giving the Treasury Department and FHFA the time to plan a careful exit from the company, which does not disrupt the mortgage markets.
“I totally agree with the President's ambitions here, as this achieves his objectives in a slow and steady approach, which I think is very consistent with what the Treasury Secretary would like to see as well,” said Bill Ackman in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.
Ackman's three-step process
Bill Ackman said that the federal government should first acknowledge how these companies have lost a lot of money for the shareholders, so they should make it interesting for the same people for a successful IPO round.
“These companies have lost a lot of money for shareholders, so before you (government) do the biggest IPO of all time, you want the shareholders to be excited about what's going on; otherwise, an IPO will be unsuccessful,” Bill Ackman said in the interview.
In the report, Pershing Square Capital recommended that the account for the repayment of the Senior Preferred Stock of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Second, the government should exercise the Treasury’s 79.9% share warrants in both companies for $0.00001 per share, and then finally relist both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The report also mentioned that these three steps will enable the Trump administration to deliver on its November 2025 timing commitment to generate value for the shareholders.
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