Ackman's Pershing Square Funds Gain 1% In April

Bill Ackman's $11 billion Pershing Square Capital Management L.P. posted a nearly 1% gain for its funds last month, despite choppy equity market conditions.

The $4.8 billion Pershing Square LP fund and the $6.5 billion Pershing Square International fund both returned 0.9% in April, bringing year-to-date gains to over 10%, according to the hedge fund manager's letter to investors. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined by 0.7% in April but was up 11.2% since the start of the year.

The April gains likely included profits from selling down Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) and Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc. (FBHS). Pershing Square sold its entire stakes in the two companies in April, according to a filing to the Securities & Exchanges Commission.

Ackman still owns shares in eight other companies, according to its quarterly fund holdings filing for the period ended Dec. 31, including Citigroup Inc. (C), Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP).

The activist hedge fund manager is currently engrossed in a bitter proxy fight with Canadian Pacific Railway in a bid to elect seven new directors to the company's 16-person board and install Hunter Harrison as the rail company's chief executive.

He was quoted by the Globe and Mail earlier Thursday as saying he's willing to review candidates other than his favored choice to lead the railway.

-By Amy Or, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone], [e-mail]