We interrupt for a brief Herbalife update
Bill Ackman's huge Herbalife presentation ("Who wants to be a millionaire?") compared Herbalife to other consumer companies that Ackman considered self-evidently legitimate.
One of those companies was Ralcorp as per Slide 305 presented below.
Well William P Stiritz has just filed a 13G disclosing a 5 percent shareholding in Herbalife.
Mr Stiritz would be a good person to make the comparison above because:
WILLIAM P. STIRITZ has served as our [Ralcorp's] chairman of the board of directors and our chief executive officer since February 2012. Mr. Stiritz is a private equity investor and served as the chairman of the board of directors of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. from 1994 until February 2012.
But it is worse than that - Stiritz was appointed CEO of the Ralcorp spin out and cereal company Post Holdings.
And in 2012 he was responsible for buying Premier Nutrition - a maker of - you guessed it - protein shakes.
So here we have it. Bill Ackman thinks this is a pyramid scheme and knowledgeable rich industry insiders are buying huge slabs of stock in their own name.
Be sure to take your seats. Herbalife is turning into a very interesting show.
John