Bill Ackman Says Herbalife Is 'Trying To Get Us to Go Away'

Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was a guest on CNBC's 'New @ Noon' segment on Thursday to discuss various issues, including his short thesis on Herbalife Ltd. HLF Ahead of his appearance, a Herbalife spokesperson sent CNBC a statement. The statement said that it has now been 3 years since Ackman detailed his short thesis against the company and "has lost hundreds of millions of dollars" and the cost of carrying his short position is over $100 million. The statement further questioned when will Ackman admit that he was "just misinformed." Ackman was quick to point out that the cost of carrying a short position is roughly 2 percent a year so a $1 billion short position against Herbalife will cost around $20 million a year - not $100 million. "It's interesting that Herbalife is trying to get us to go away and steer the focus away from the facts," Ackman said during the phone interview. He continued and said that Herbalife's $200 million settlement with the FTC would prove to be the largest consumer protection fine ever collected by the agency. He suggested that this shows that the company "clearly" engaged in wrongdoing and will ultimately end up being sued by the government for operating as a pyramid scheme. Ackman added that he is a "patient investor" in his short case against Herbalife and the risk to reward profile is the most attractive now than it has ever been. "If it wasn't an attractive investment, we would have covered a long time ago," he concluded.