Ackman Cautions Against Rushing Fannie, Freddie IPO

Bill Ackman chimed in on the idea Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ready for prime time.

The Pershing Square chief, whose firm holds 210 million common shares of the mortgage giants, is urging President Donald Trump’s administration to shelve any talk of an IPO and take what he calls a safer, faster route to unlocking value at the government-backed lenders, according to a social media post reported by Bisnow. The firm is the largest common shareholder of the companies.

Ackman laid out his case Tuesday in a public presentation on X, arguing the GSEs are nowhere near the governance standards required for a traditional listing.

Instead, he said the White House should direct regulators to move existing over-the-counter shares onto a major exchange once the companies meet their capital return requirements. That alone, he said, would give public investors the safety they want while keeping the decade-and-a-half conservatorship regime firmly in place.

The investor framed his plan as both a protective shield for preferred shareholders and a political win for Trump, who has leaned into the promise of “ending” conservatorship without disrupting the mortgage market that underpins the nation’s housing. Ackman said the move could be executed within weeks and that the New York Stock Exchange signaled it would prioritize such a listing.

The pitch also hinges on an argument that the Treasury has already collected its “pound of flesh” from the bailout.

The agency has taken in roughly $301 billion in dividends since the crisis-era bailout, eclipsing the terms of the original $100 billion senior preferred stock purchase agreement. Ackman wants Treasury to deem those senior notes repaid — rather than convert them to common equity — which he warned would crush shareholder value.

Even with the agreement retired, the government would still hold roughly 80 percent of both companies, an ownership stake Ackman said could serve as a de facto sovereign wealth fund.

He contends the “baby step” of relisting shares could push the stock toward $40, up from under $10 today. Fannie and Freddie both rose more than 2 percentage points after his remarks.

Ackman’s plan runs up against a thorny reality. Any path out of conservatorship requires sorting out capital rules, federal guarantees and long-standing questions about whether the two GSEs should merge.

He dismissed a merger outright, saying competition benefits borrowers and downplayed fears about removing an explicit government backstop, arguing major financial institutions effectively have one anyway.

— Holden Walter-Warner