Pershing Mentioned in Leucadia Letter

While Pershing Square, the investment firm managed by Bill Ackman, was not mentioned directly in Leucadia's latest shareholder letter--it was mentioned indirectly. I quote:

Over the past several years we have invested our excess cash with various outside managers with a view towards receiving a good return and hoping to uncover investment opportunities. We were disappointed with the results. The returns were not good and we did not uncover investment opportunities. With few exceptions, our fund investments were not immune to the market upheaval experienced in 2008, but the overall return since inception was minus .5%. It could have been worse. For the most part, we do not intend to continue this activity.

Leucadia shareholders will no doubt be happy (or at least happier than otherwise) to hear that last sentence. The move to make a leveraged bet on the valuation of Target was much criticized--in large part because of all the money that would have gone to Pershing (in fees) if the bet was successful.