Summerlin developer Howard Hughes Holdings, backed by Bill Ackman, is buying insurance company for $2.1B

Summerlin’s developer has reeled in its first acquisition since hedge-fund magnate Bill Ackman widened its scope of operations.

Howard Hughes Holdings announced Thursday that it reached a deal to acquire insurance firm Vantage Group Holdings for about $2.1 billion.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, according to Hughes Holdings, which said Vantage would “anchor” its transformation into a diversified holding company.

Ackman, executive chairman of Hughes Holdings, called the deal a “milestone event” in the real estate developer’s change.

The company, through its newly named “real estate platform” Howard Hughes Communities, has properties and projects in several states, including Hawaii, Nevada, Texas and Maryland.

Locally, it sells land in Las Vegas’ Summerlin master-planned community to homebuilders. It also has developed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects in Summerlin’s commercial core, off Sahara Avenue and the 215 Beltway.

Summerlin spans 22,500 acres along the Las Vegas Valley’s western rim and boasts 130,000 residents.

The Texas-based company’s namesake — Howard Hughes, the famed aviator, business tycoon and recluse — acquired the Southern Nevada land mass in the 1950s.

$900M deal

This past May, Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management acquired 9 million newly issued shares in the company for $900 million.

Under the deal, the New York-based investment firm boosted its ownership stake to 46.9 percent of the developer’s stock, up from 37.6 percent as of early this year, and Ackman was named executive chairman.

According to a news release at the time, the deal would enable Hughes Holdings to become a diversified holding company by acquiring controlling stakes in operating companies — a shift proposed by Ackman — while still growing its core real estate business.

Ackman – the company’s former chairman – had cited an “extremely disappointing” stock-price performance and said he envisioned the developer becoming similar to billionaire Warren Buffett’s famed conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.

Corporate changes

Hughes Holdings CEO David O’Reilly previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the task of finding, valuing and buying stakes in other companies would be largely handled by Pershing Square and Hughes Holdings’ new chief investment officer, Ryan Israel, who holds the same role at Ackman’s firm.

O’Reilly also said that the transaction with Pershing Square would not affect Summerlin’s development or the company’s broader real estate business, other than improving its credit and cost of capital.

Pershing Square initially offered this past January to buy out other stockholders in Hughes Holdings at $85 per share for $1 billion total, a deal that would have given the firm a majority of the developer’s stock.

It then withdrew the proposal and submitted a revised offer in February to acquire 10 million newly issued shares in Hughes Holdings for $90 apiece, or $900 million total.

That deal also called for Ackman to become chairman and chief executive of the company.

Instead, his firm bought less stock at a higher price-per-share, and O’Reilly kept the CEO’s seat.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.