>
Boost for British watchmaker Bremont as US billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman takes a minority stake
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has taken a minority stake in watchmaker Bremont after becoming a customer.
The American activist investor has pumped £48.4 million into the Henley-on-Thames-based company, along with long-standing investor Hellcat.
The move will help Bremont bring large-scale watchmaking back to the UK.
US activist investor Bill Ackman has teamed up with long-time investor Hellcat to pump £48.4 million into Henley-on-Thames-based watchmaker Bremont
Ackman said he has “long admired” the company and sent a handwritten note last summer to brothers Nick and Giles English, who co-founded Bremont in 2002.
The 56-year-old founder and boss of Pershing Square Capital Management – which is based in New York – has put his own private money into the British company and said he will help recruit a CEO.
Known for selling products to the military and headquartered in Henley-on-Thames, London, Bremont is now valued at over £100 million.
The Wall Street financier said he was “excited” to have become a shareholder “at a turning point in the company’s evolution” and that he would see it achieve its “rightful position as a world leader in watches.”
Fresh capital was ‘a boost not only for Bremont, but also for Britain’, said Giles English.
Eighteen months ago, the watchmaker opened a 35,000 square foot manufacturing and technology center in Henley.