Bad year for Wall Street's 'golden boy' Bill Ackman

New York

FOR a Wall Street star once dubbed the "Baby Buffett", Bill Ackman is having a pretty bad year.

Huge bets on companies like Valeant and Herbalife have delivered steep losses to the flamboyant billionaire's Pershing Square hedge fund.

With some US$12 billion under management, Pershing lost around 20 per cent in the first half this year, securities filings show.

And everything suggests that the second half won't be much better, after Mr Ackman's crusade against nutritional supplement direct sales company Herbalife, which he shorted as he labelled it a pyramid fund, was rebuffed on Friday.

Agreeing with Mr Ackman's longtime rival in Wall Street big-time activist investing, Carl Icahn, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled that Herbalife is not a pyramid operation and, while …