Activist investor Bill Ackman buys nearly 10% of Chipotle
Chipotle shares, under siege after a series of food scares erupted just over a year ago, surged at the opening bell after activist investor Bill Ackman revealed that he’s become the chain’s second-largest investor.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP has amassed a 9.9% stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shares jumped 5% in early trading Wednesday.
After taking a major stake, Ackman has in the past shaken up the leadership of ailing companies, and that is what Chipotle has become since the first outbreak of E. coli last year.
Shares that hit an all-time high close to $760 in summer 2015 have almost been cut in half.
“We just learned yesterday of Pershing Square’s acquisition of Chipotle shares,” company spokesman Chris Arnold said. “We welcome their investment, and appreciate the confidence they’ve expressed in our brand, differentiated offering, visionary leadership and strong growth opportunities.”
The company has been trying to win back customers after restaurants in multiple states — including California — were hit with norovirus, salmonella and E. coli cases, sickening hundreds and dashing its reputation as a place to eat fresh food.
It has made changes in the preparation of food that, because it is unprocessed, may have made it more susceptible to impurities.
Chipotle, based in Denver, has distributed millions of coupons for free food since the outbreaks, and last month it gave away free kids’ meals on Sunday.
If the arrival of Ackman changes Chipotle’s trajectory, it could mark the end of a bad spell for both.
Ackman’s Pershing Square has been a huge backer of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, a drug company whose shares have plunged almost 90% over the last year amid multiple federal and state investigations.
And Ackman’s long and very public campaign against Herbalife, a Los Angeles company that he has called a pyramid scheme, has hammered investors in his hedge fund.
Shares of Herbalife are up 17% this year, and they’re up 42% since Ackman unleashed a withering attack and announced a short position against the company in late 2012.
MORE BUSINESS NEWS
ITT Tech shuts down all its schools
Homestead cabins have become a cottage industry in the desert
21st Century Fox settles Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes
