Aug 7 (Reuters) - Celsius Holdings is facing pressure from Rockstar Energy founder Russ Savage, who has amassed a nearly 5% stake in the energy drink maker and is calling for the replacement of its top leadership, CNBC reported on Friday.
Savage, who founded Rockstar in 2001 and sold the energy drink brand to PepsiCo for $3.85 billion in 2020, now controls more than 12 million shares of Celsius, representing about 4.7% of the company, he told CNBC.
Savage also told CNBC he would be willing to take over as chief executive of Celsius, arguing that the company's current leadership had lost credibility with investors.
According to the report, Savage had been informally advising Celsius for more than a year on costs and marketing, but his recommendations were largely ignored.
Celsius did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Following the report, shares of Celsius were up about 13% in afternoon trading on Friday, a day after they tumbled 18% after the company reported quarterly results that missed Wall Street estimates.
(Reporting by Sanskriti Shekhar; Editing by Maju Samuel)
Disclaimer: This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
