Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has two words to sum up his Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) presentation last week: “My bad.”
Investors may have missed the point because the event was long and overhyped, Ackman said in an interview. Even the private researcher who helped convince Ackman the company is an illegal pyramid scheme now says the details of a two-year investigation into Herbalife’s nutrition clubs were largely ignored.
Ackman had promised to show an Enron-style fraud during the event. Instead of dumping the stock, investors sent the shares up 25 percent after the presentation, marking the biggest one-day gain in the history of the company. Ackman’s firm, Pershing Square Capital Management LP, bet $1 billion against the stock in 2012.
“It was a PR failure,” Ackman said. “I think we raised expectations. People were looking for the dead body and the smoking gun and instead what they got was a three-hour detailed regulatory presentation.”
The shares declined 6.1 percent to $52.40 at the close in New York.
Lost amid the earlier share gain was research that offers evidence of an elaborate and secretive illegal recruiting system, said Christine Richard, a former journalist who helped Ackman present material at the New York event.
William “Bill” Ackman, founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital