Pershing Square Slashes Procter & Gamble Stake -- Filing

   By David Benoit 
 

Pershing Square Capital Management LP continued cutting its stake in consumer-products company Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) in the fourth quarter of last year.

The hedge fund of Bill Ackman reported owning only 739,605 shares of P&G, down 65% from the end of the third quarter. The stake was worth about $60 million as of the end of the year, down from $161 million at the end of September.

Mr. Ackman first took the stake in P&G in July 2012, a stake worth about $2 billion at that time. He pressured the company to oust Chief Executive John McDonald, which it did last summer.

P&G had been Pershing Square's biggest investment until the fund took a position in Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD) in July. Mr. Ackman's hedge fund's stake in Air Products ticked up slightly in the fourth quarter, the filing showed. Mr. Ackman said this week at a conference he believed shares could double.

The disclosures came in Pershing Square's form 13F. The federal filings are required to be filed by institutional investors managing $100 million or more. They are snapshots of these portfolios at the end of every calendar quarter.

Write to David Benoit at [e-mail]

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