Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio) did not sell any Herbalife (HLF, Financial) shares after Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) ended his battle with the company yesterday, he said in a phone interview with CNBC Thursday.
Icahn, who famously started a long position in the company after Ackman announced he was shorting it, owns approximately 26% of the multilevel marketing company through his firm, Icahn Enterprises.
Icahn highlighted the company’s barriers to entry and said that the Federal Trade Commission investigation against the company that ended in July 2016 had improved them. That investigation led to a $200 million fine and a restructuring of the company’s U.S. business operations.
“I tell you they have great barriers of entrance,” Icahn said. “In a strange way the FTC might have even helped them in building those barriers because the FTC has put on certain restrictions in how you have to report – I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of it – how you report this whole network and how you’ve got to show that there is a network and there really is buying product.”
Herbalife’s stock price soared 7.52% this week to around $91.95, pushing Icahn’s total estimated profit to 110%. Icahn did not say whether he would continue holding the position.
"There’s also barriers to entry because there’s really good products that they’ve developed over the years," he said. "As a result, I’m quite bullish – I’m bullish on the company, but you know something, I don’t go out and say what I’m going to do with my stocks. That would be counterproductive.”
Icahn: I have not sold one single share of Herbalife from CNBC.
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