Herbalife Ltd., the maker of nutritional supplements and weight-management products, fell the most in more than three years after hedge-fund manager David Einhorn asked executives why it has stopped providing information tracking certain groups of its distributors in its filings.

Herbalife tumbled 24 percent to $53.35 at 2:33 p.m. in New York, its biggest drop since Nov. 4, 2008.

Einhorn, chairman of Cayman Islands-based reinsurer Greenlight Capital Re Ltd. spoke to the company’s executives on a conference call today following publication of Herbalife’s first-quarter results yesterday. Net income in the period increased increased 23 percent to $108.2 million as revenue advanced 21 percent to $964.2 million, the company reported.

Chief Financial Officer John DeSimone told Einhorn on the call that when he took over as finance chief in January 2010 he decided to stop breaking out information on distributor groups as it isn’t “valuable information to the business or to the investors.” Herbalife “can easily provide the exact same breakout going forward,” DeSimone told Einhorn.

“That sort of follow up” would be “helpful,” Einhorn said on the call.

Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Cayman Islands-based Greenlight, declined to comment on Einhorn’s remarks or comment on whether whether Einhorn is a Herbalife investor.

Barbara Henderson, a spokeswoman for Herbalife, didn’t immediately reply to a telephone message.

The company reported earnings per share of 88 cents compared with 70 cents, a year earlier and raised its full-year guidance to a range of $3.58 to $3.74 from an earlier forecast of $3.40 to $3.60.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/01/bloomberg_articlesM3CTAJ0D9L3801-M3CWZ.DTL#ixzz1tj0Cjpc0