Key facts
- Ackman said Pershing Square owns about 10% of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Ackman said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told him the ownership question must be resolved in 2027 or 2028.
- The Treasury holds warrants to buy 79.9% of each company's common stock, Ackman said.
- Ackman said shareholders won their lawsuit over the government's taking of company profits, and the government is appealing.
- Fannie Mae shares traded around $5.26 and Freddie Mac around $4.85 on November 3, both down about 50% over the past year.
Bill Ackman said on November 3 that releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government conservatorship would create "half a trillion" dollars of value, "80% of which is held by taxpayers," and called that figure conservative. Speaking on Pershing Square's third-quarter earnings call, he said: "It will be the greatest real estate deal of all time."
Ackman framed the exit as a political imperative for Republicans rather than only an economic one. In conservatorship, he said, "the government has godlike powers" over housing policy, mortgage terms and underwriting, and the party cannot be sure the next president will be one of its own. He said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told him the companies' ownership needs to be resolved in 2027 or 2028, before President Trump leaves office.
Ackman said he expects at least one chamber of Congress to slip from Republican control, leaving a Fannie and Freddie release as one of the few big economic moves the president can still make on his own. He described the moment: "It's an opportunity for the president to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange and literally deliver hundreds of billions of dollars of value to taxpayers."
Ackman said Pershing Square owns about 10% of both companies and treats them almost as a single position. The Treasury holds warrants to buy 79.9% of each company's common stock, and how those are handled in any release would decide what is left for other shareholders, he said.
Fannie and Freddie have been under government control since September 2008, when they were rescued during the financial crisis. Their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, ordered them delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 after their shares sank to near the exchange's $1 minimum price, and they have traded over the counter since. Fannie Mae shares traded around $5.26 on November 3 and Freddie Mac shares around $4.85, both down about 50% over the past year.
Ackman said shareholders won their lawsuit over how the government took the companies' profits, but the government keeps appealing. He said he would not mind a lengthy legal battle: "I wouldn't mind it going to the Supreme Court because I think the Supreme Court might attract more attention to how inappropriate and unfair this was."