Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) raised the stakes in its hostile bid for Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN), to $58.30 per share, bringing the total bid to $166.16 per share while at the same time executing a separate deal with Nestle to shed some of Valeant’s skin care products and raise cash.
After upping cash portion, deal for Allergan still highly dependent on Valeant stock value
In upping the ante in the cash portion of a $50.4 billion cash and stock deal, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) seeks to mitigate claims the stock portion of the Valeant offer is substandard. As reported yesterday in ValueWalk, Allergan aggressively attacked Valeant’s business model and the stability of its management, seeking to expose a weakness in the Valeant offer: the stability of its stock price.
In a letter to Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) CEO David Pyott today, Valeant Chairman and CEO J. Michael Parson sought to defuse the tension and suggested the two sides should meet. “It appears based on Allergan’s recent public statements that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of our business model and its performance,” Pearson wrote in the letter made public today.
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Opposites not attracting in this relationship
Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) 76 and Allergan are at the opposite end of the spectrum in several regards. Valeant is a cost-cutting roll-up firm that seeks to slash spending, particularly in research and development, and generate immediate bottom line results for shareholders such as activist hedge fund investor William Ackman, who helped orchestrate Valeant’s takeover bid and invested in 9.7 percent of Allergan stock before the details of the buyout were made public. Robert Khuzami, the former director of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission and now a lawyer in private practice, advised Ackman on the legality of the sale, publically proclaiming the deal was legal before SEC enforcement staff had reviewed the situation. Ackman has remained relatively silent on the matter in recent weeks.
Shortly after Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) announced its unwanted advance, Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) implemented a poison pill defense designed to thwart Valeant’s efforts. Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN)’s tactics to derail Valeant’s advances include attacking the structure of the deal, which is still heavily weighted towards using Valeant stock as currency to purchase Allergan shares. Boosting the cash reserves of Valeant slightly is a separate deal where Valeant will sell a portion of its skin care products business to Nestle for $1.4 billion, as reported in the New York Times.
Stock price of both parties sinks on revised bid
Perhaps reflecting pessimism over the value of the Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) offer – or a nod to Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN)’s aggressive resistance tactics, Allergan stock was down nearly $6 trading at $159, below the Valeant offer cash and stock offer or $166.16. For its part, Valeant Pharmaceuticals was down near 3% trading near $126.