Here’s What Billionaire Bill Ackman Had to Say About His Biggest Investments at the DealBook Conference

As to his Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) short, Ackman says that he “has an enormous stomach for volatility” and that he knows the “ultimate outcome” — that in his opinion, “it’s gonna go to zero.” As for why he believes so, Ackman notes that Herbalife’s business is declining. It was supposed to make $8 per share in 2017 according to analyst models a few years ago and now Wall Street is estimating the stock will earn around $4.60-to-$5.00 per share. Ackman notes that the CEO just quit, which to him is never a good sign. Ackman thinks Herbalife having to recruit 2 million distributors a year for its growth objective will be more and more difficult over time. The hedge fund manager did say that Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) will likely be his last public short given that there is no upside to going public.

As for the Street’s speculation that 3G, which owns a big chunk of Kraft, might buy Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), Ackman says “I don’t know if there is a fund [for 3G], or what they plan to do with it, and the last thing they [3G] wants to do is let other people know.” According to our database, Pershing owned almost 23 million shares of Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) at the end of June.

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