Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is eyeing a second SPAC deal even though he will miss his own Q1 timeline to find a first target

• Pershing Square chief Bill Ackman is already planning a second SPAC, but hasn't yet found a first target.
• Airbnb, Stripe, and Bloomberg LP were previously said to be among his blank-check firm's first targets.
• Ackman said he believes his SPAC will be an important contributor to his hedge fund's performance.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is already planning a second blank-check company, but expects to extend his first-quarter timeline to find a first target.

The legendary investor had hoped his special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) would seek out a target by the end of the first quarter, but now admits this might not happen. Prior targets on the list of his Pershing Square Tontine Holdings SPAC included Airbnb, Stripe, and Bloomberg LP, according to Reuters.

"While we previously believed that we would be able to announce a potential transaction by the end of this quarter, we will not be in a position to do so," Ackman said in a letter to investors on Monday. "We do not intend to make any announcements about PSTH's transaction progress until we enter into a definitive agreement."

Ackman said he believes his SPAC will be an important contributor to the hedge fund's performance and he will likely launch a second one after completing a first merger. Investors in his first SPAC should have the right to invest in the second one "without paying a premium to its cash-in-trust value," he wrote in the letter.

Ackman's PSTH was the highest-profile SPAC among hedge funds in 2020, when SPACs raised $83 billion across 248 IPOs, smashing the previous record of $13.6 billion, according to SPACInsider.com. His SPAC raised a record-breaking $4 billion via proceeds from investors in July last year, along with an added $1 billion commitment from Pershing Square.

While he has not told investors which companies he was looking to take over, a previous filing stated he is drawn to "high-quality, venture-backed businesses" that could be classified as "mature unicorns." Unicorns are privately-held startups with a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The SPAC has until July 21 next year to sign a letter of intent and six months after that to close a signed deal, according to Bloomberg.

Shares in Pershing Square Tontine fell 1.3% in pre-market trading on Tuesday.