Quebec's Valeant sweetens Allergan bid to $50B

Canadian drug giant Valeant Pharmaceuticals is beautifying its bid for Botox maker Allergan, raising the stakes to about $50 billion in cash and stock. 

The Quebec-based company will now put up an extra $10 cash per share for the California drug maker to $58.50 — an increase of 21 per cent. The stock component will stay at 0.83 of a Valeant share.

Valeant also said it will also commit up to $400 million to invest in Allergan's DARPin, a drug at the trial stage that treats blindness in the elderly.

Initial bid spurned

Valeant's first offer of $46B last month was made with activist investor Bill Ackman, whose firm Pershing Square Capital Management LP holds 9.7 per cent of Allergan. The bid was rejected as being grossly undervalued. 

Although Allergan said Wednesday it will "carefully review and consider" the revised proposal, it was preemptively on the defence. In an investor presentation Tuesday, the company attacked Valeant's acquisition-dependent business model, warning Valeant's "limited experience with large, global-scale products represents a material execution risk attempting to grow Allergan's categories and launching significant new large products through existing channels."

Valeant deal with Nestlé

In a separate announcement, Valeant said it's also selling some of its skincare products to Nestlé for $1.4 billion. Those include antidotes for frown lines and wrinkles, a sale that could help Valeant clear some regulatory hurdles in acquiring the Botox anti-wrinkle drug.

Both Valeant and Allergan shares were trading over three per cent lower in early trading.