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05/18/2024 12:27:25 am

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Perishing Square Capital’s Shares Drop 15 Percent After Bill Ackman’s ‘Most Important Presentation’

Bill Ackman

(Photo : REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks to the audience about Herbalife company in New York, July 22, 2014.

Perishing Square Capital's shares dropped to 15 percent on Tuesday following Bill Ackman's "most important presentation."

Ackman's presentation aimed to assail Herbalife's credibility, but the stock market wasn't impressed. Analysts thought Ackman's arguments were not as strong as they've expected, especially after all his threatening claims that his presentation could really put Herbalife down.

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Herbalife CEO John DeSimone said the billionaire's "bark is worse than his bite."

The 250-slide presentation amassed of details about Herbalife's nutrition clubs in the U.S. Ackman focused on the company's violation of labor laws in the nutrition clubs. He said that the employees of the clubs are not paid for their work, and that the multi-level marketing company had "fictitious customers" and a "fictitious business opportunity."

He also claimed that Herbalife's fraudulent business is perpetrated by its senior management and top level executives that all worked to exploit the poor.

The pyramid scheme, he said, specifically sought "to exploit the extremely poor in new and existing markets."

Ackman also presented the nutrition club in the Queens, which he said had lost $12,000 annually before paying the rental fee, concluding that it wasn't a good business model.

At the end of his speech, he got emotional as he spoke about the "American dream." He said that Herbalife is using the promise of the "American dream" to attract people to join.

He said his lineage were very fortunate to be able to accomplish the "American dream."

"The American dream has been tarnished in a lot of different ways...but when you have a New York Stock Exchange company specifically targeting people and using the American Dream principles ... they sell the American dream. It's criminal. Unfortunately, it's taking the regulators too long," Ackman said.

Fund manager Carl Icahn said Ackman drew his last straw with this talk. Icahn said he did not sell a single share of Herbalife even after Ackman's threats last week.

A person in the audience asked if Ackman is luring the company into suing him.

To which Ackman answered, "Bring it on."

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