Dan Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund is playing both sides of the multilevel-marketing field riveted by the battle over Herbalife.
Loeb has taken an 8 percent stake in nutritional supplement company Herbalife, helping it fend off a $1 billion short attack from fellow hedgie Bill Ackman, who believes Herbalife is a “pyramid scheme” that should be shut down by the feds.
Loeb told investors recently that Third Point does not believe the pyramid accusation “has merit,” saying: “We believe Herbalife operates squarely within the FTC’s boundaries.”
Loeb’s investment sent the stock soaring, and it is now higher than when Ackman unveiled his short position.
In contrast, Third Point takes a dim view of fellow multilevel-marketing company Nu Skin, whose stock trades in tandem with Herbalife. Third Point took a sizable short position in Nu Skin, which sells anti-aging products, after it began researching the company in the summer of 2011, said a source familiar with the situation who is neither long nor short in either company.
The firm may have traded in and out of the position but was short as of last week, the source said.
A spokesperson for Third Point declined to comment. The hedge fund does not break out its short positions.
But consumer shorts — which would include the Nu Skin position — made up almost 3 percent of the firm’s $5 billion offshore hedge fund at the end of December, or roughly $150 million. The firmwide Herbalife long position cost an estimated $285 million.
Nu Skin sells anti-aging products in much the same way that Herbalife sells its weight-loss and nutritional supplements: Its distributors profit by recruiting more salespeople, which is the definition of multilevel marketing. Sources said that much of Third Point’s short conviction about Nu Skin concerns its expansion in China, where multilevel-marketing is illegal.
China is also a big growth market for Herbalife, accounting for 10.5 percent of sales done via direct selling. Herbalife has acknowledged the risks in China, including “uncertainties relating to interpretation and enforcement of legislation in China governing direct selling; our inability to obtain the necessary licenses to expand our direct selling business in China; and adverse changes in the Chinese economy, Chinese legal system or Chinese governmental policies.”
Third Point wasn’t the only one looking into Nu Skin. In August, Nu Skin dropped 9 percent after Citron Research published a report stating that it believes the company is operating a pyramid scheme in China. Nu Skin denied this.