Hedge fund titan Ackman takes new stake in Nomad Foods

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor William Ackman's hedge fund has taken a position in Nomad Foods Limited , a young company created to make acquisitions in the food industry, according to a release made by the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

According to the filing, Ackman's $20 billion Pershing Square Capital Management owns 22 percent of Nomad, a so-called special purpose acquisition company. Pershing Square crossed the 20 percent threshold on the Nomad stake on May 26, according to the filing.

As one (Other OTC: IUSDF - news) of the hedge fund industry's most successful activist investors, Ackman's picks are closely watched by the market ,and often a company's share price will climb as he begins pushing for improvements.

Last month Ackman told investors on a conference call that his fund was close to announcing a new position and earlier in the month he spoke about Nomad publicly for the first time at the Sohn Investment Conference.

Nomad, which was founded by Martin Franklin and Noam Gottesman last year, acquired Igloo Foods Holdings, Europe's largest frozen foods business, from a private equity company in April. Ackman said Nomad's shares have climbed by about 80 percent in a year, boosted by the Igloo acquisition, which the company plans to use as a base for more takeovers.

Pershing Square gained 6.8 percent in the first five months of this year, outperforming the average hedge fund, which has gained roughly 2.8 percent this year. Pershing Square surged 40 percent last year to rank as one of the industry's best-performing hedge funds.

Ackman has publicly praised Franklin's skills as a corporate executive and previously worked with him on two other investments, Justice Holdings, which took Burger King public, and Platform Specialty Products Corporation (NYSE: PAH - news) , in which Pershing Square invested in early 2014. Platform Specialty Products' share price has surged 175 percent since the company's public listing two years ago.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Leslie Adler)