Billionaire Bill Ackman says he expects Trump to privatize the nation’s two largest government-owned lenders
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The Trump-supporting financier said he believes the president-elect will remove lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman has said he expects Donald Trump to privatize two of the nation’s biggest government-owned mortgage lenders.
The move would potentially make them private companies again, which Ackman said would generate “$300 billion of additional profits to the federal government” if successful. Ackman, a major shareholder of Fannie Mae, said there is a “credible path” to remove the companies from conservatorship in the next two years with Trump at the helm.
“During Trump’s first term, Secretary Mnuchin took steps toward this outcome, but he ran out of time,” Ackman said. “I expect that in the second @realDonaldTrump administration, Trump and his team will get the job done.”. “Trump likes big deals and this would be the biggest deal in history,” Ackman added. “I am confident he will get it done.”.
He conceded that there remains “a high degree of uncertainty” about the ultimate outcome in a warning to his followers. After Ackman’s post, shares of both companies enjoyed a boost, with Fannie Mae rising 18.4 percent and Freddie Mac up 18 percent. The companies are two of the biggest backers of mortgages in the U.S.
Following the housing market collapse in the 2008 crash, the companies suffered huge losses and were placed in conservatorship under the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Ackman is a Trump ally who previously celebrated the president-elect’s proposals to introduce trade tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada by 25 percent.
