Bill Ackman once called John Hempton 'certifiably crazy'. Now the Sydney shortseller wants to bury the hatchet.
Bill Ackman's latest crusade against his alma mater Harvard and media outlet Business Insider has unexpectedly won him the respect of arguably his fiercest critic.
Few investors have tangled with billionaire US hedge fund impresario Bill Ackman to the extent that Sydney-based short seller John Hempton has.
Ackman, one of the most feared activist investors on Wall Street, repeatedly locked horns with Hempton, with the two men repeatedly exchanging personal barbs as they found themselves on opposite sides of some of the biggest trades in the market.
At the zenith (or nadir) of their standoff, Ackman called Hempton ‘certifiably crazy', and told Hempton’s own clients during a presentation in Europe that the Sydneysider's misplaced bets against Valeant Pharmaceuticals would blow up his fund, Bronte Capital.
Hempton was ultimately vindicated when Valeant spectacularly fell apart in 2016 but there was little love lost. The outspoken fund manager infamously said he’d rather hang out with drug dealers and prostitutes than spend any time with Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital .
