CFO.com- William Ackman, the activist manager of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, took on an unusual new role today, demanding that management of embattled bond insurer MBIA give him far more information than it would normally disclose or is required to provide by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In advance of the 11 AM call, Ackman, who has correctly shorted the stock for several years, widely disseminated a press release full of detailed financial questions he had submitted to management.
Hedge funds are often thought of as activists if they lobby for changes in governance, special dividends, divestitures, and the like. But in this case, Ackman may be trying to save the market from economic crisis. MBIA and other bond insurers are a backstop of last resort in the rapidly unraveling subprime mortgage crisis, and Ackman’s questionnaire was aimed squarely at determining the company’s level of exposure and its liquidity.
