Bill Ackman attacked a recent survey that Herbalife says refutes allegations that it is a pyramid scheme and reiterated his call for an investigation of the company.
Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund said that the Nielsen survey funded by the company 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 again urged regulators to investigate Herbalife following demands from several consumer groups and federal and local legislators.
Ackman — who took a $1-billion short against Herbalife’s shares late last year — has squared off against rival hedge-fund activist Carl Icahn, who owns more than 16 percent of the shares.
Herbalife, which has repeatedly denied Ackman’s allegations that it is an illegal scheme, said the Nielsen survey showed that the protein shakes, vitamins and other nutritional products have a “broad consumer base in the US.”
Herbalife shares, which are up 50 percent this year, are up another 1.6 percent at $49.68.
Because the survey does not indicate the amount of products purchased or the prices paid, it cannot determine whether distributors earned more from retail profits than from recruiting related compensation, Pershing Square said.
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.
“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.
mcelarier@nypost.com