Bill Ackman is back on the Herbalife attack.
The hedge-fund manager — who took a $1-billion short against Herbalife’s shares last year — reiterated his call for an investigation of the company while attacking a recent survey that Herbalife says refutes his allegations that it is a pyramid scheme.
Ackman’s Pershing Square said that the Nielsen survey funded by Herbalife relied on responses from only 349 individuals to conclude that 7.9 million Americans have bought Herbalife’s products in the past three months.
While Herbalife has “incurred substantial expense in commissioning surveys,” the company “refuses to release actual sales data,” Pershing said in a statement.
“If Herbalife is a legitimate consumer products company, it should be tracking sales data as closely as possible,” the statement continued.
The hedge fund also said that a 1986 California injunction against the company requires it to implement a system that allows it to “verify and document” its retail sales.
Pershing once again called on regulators to probe Herbalife after several consumer groups and lawmakers raised concerns that the company targets minorities.
Herbalife, which has repeatedly denied Ackman’s allegations that it is an illegal scheme, said the Nielsen survey showed that its products have a “broad consumer base in the US.”
“Bill Ackman’s actions are motivated by a reckless $1 billion bet against the company based on knowingly false statements about Herbalife,” a spokesman for Herbalife said in a statement yesterday.
Herbalife shares, which are up 50 percent this year, rose 1.3 percent to close at $49.55.