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SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Bill Ackman has his sights set on being this generation's Warren Buffett.
Though the activist turned long-term investor is hesitant to say he thinks he will be the next Oracle of Omaha.
"Warren's an icon, and he deserves his own place in history," the Pershing Square CEO told Yahoo Finance at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday.
Ackman took a big swing at being Buffett-like on Monday.
Pershing Square said it will invest $900 million in real estate company Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH), giving it a 46.7% ownership stake. Ackman will become executive chairman of the company. Ryan Israel, Pershing Square's CIO (and Ackman's successor in waiting), will take on the job of Howard Hughes' CIO.
The plan is to turn Howard Hughes into a diversified holding company that buys other companies to generate value for investors.
If that sounds familiar, it's the model Buffett and business partner Charlie Munger pioneered decades ago.
In 1965, Buffett took control of then-struggling textile manufacturer Berkshire Hathaway. Today, Berkshire is a mega-conglomerate, owning everything from the Burlington Northern railroad to large stakes in Coca-Cola (KO) and American Express (AXP).
Buffett said over the weekend he will step down as CEO at the end of 2025, after 60 years at the helm. He'll hand over the reins to his hand-picked successor, Greg Abel.
"We're going to start not with elephants, not rabbits, but small animals," Ackman said of his acquisition strategy for Howard Hughes.
Buffett famously said years ago that he was going "elephant hunting" to unearth large takeover targets to put Berkshire Hathaway's significant cash pile to work. Buffett currently has $350 billion in cash, but he has been hesitant to pull the trigger on deals in recent years due to valuations.
Ackman said he differs with Buffett when it comes to valuations, as he's willing to pay up to own faster-growth companies.
"Warren loves the same kind of businesses as we do. He hasn't, I would say, generally been prepared to pay up for them. You know, he has been very, very disciplined. I'm not aware of a business he's purchased where he paid more than 10 times, basically operating earnings," Ackman noted.
"I would say when we bought Chipotle (CMG), it didn't look cheap. Many companies who we invested in over time didn't look cheap at the time, but they became cheap very quickly by virtue of growth in the earnings, cash flow of the business over time. But I would say very similar principles [to Buffett] about how we think about capital allocation, how we think about incentives, how we think about the kind of people we want to do business with, the kind of people we want to partner with."