Bill Ackman Finds Shorting Yuan, Riyal More Vexing Than Valuable
- Pershing Square's wagers against the currencies fall short
- Government defense of exchange-rate pegs damps returns
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Bill Ackman is finding out the hard way the lengths policy makers are willing to go to defend their currencies.
Bets against China’s yuan and the Saudi Arabian riyal, made by the billionaire founder of activist hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, have largely failed as hedges against the effects of slumping Chinese stocks and declining oil prices due to intervention by the nations’ central banks, Ackman wrote in his annual letter to investors released Tuesday. Pershing, which has almost $15 billion of assets under management, lost 20.5 percent in its publicly traded fund last year.