Hedge fund investor wants board representation

Activist investor Bill Ackman and his Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund are reportedly pressing for representation on the Target board, according to published reports based on SEC filings. As of Feb. 26, Pershing Square Capital Management owned nearly 58.4 million shares of Target stock, representing 7.8% of the company’s outstanding shares, according to an SEC filing. The most recent news regarding Ackman and Pershing Square follows an unsuccessful attempt last year to persuade the board to spin-off a separate publicly-traded real estate investment trust that would own the land currently owned by Target. The board rejected the idea in late November as highly speculative and said any potential value created was insufficient to merit pursuit of a transaction given the costs, strategic and operating risks, and loss of financial flexibility related to executing the proposed transaction.