Allergan Reiterates its Belief that Valeant’s Business Model is
Unsustainable
Re-Revised
Proposal Creates Significant Risks and Uncertainties for Allergan
Stockholders Numerous Third Parties Agree
June 16, 2014
07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
IRVINE,
Calif.--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--Allergan, Inc. (NYSE: AGN) (“Allergan” or the
“Company”) today reiterated the Company’s concern regarding Valeant
Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.’s (“Valeant”) unsustainable
business model, which relies on serial acquisitions and cost
reductions, as opposed to top-line revenue growth and operational
excellence. A number of different third parties have also publicly
expressed similar views.
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“Valeant Pharma's Arguments About Drug Research Are Misleading
And Wrong.” |
John Hempton,
Chief Investment Officer, Bronte Capital
“Valeant Pharmaceuticals: Part IIIA: Corrections and Amplifications
on the Medicis Restructuring Charges.” Bronte Capital Blog,
June 13, 2014
“There is a
possibility that the whole Valeant exercise is something from the
Wizard of Oz. Profits are going up nicely if you pay no attention to
that man behind the curtain — the man being the large restructuring
and one-time items.”*
Vicki Bryan,
Senior High Yield Analyst, Gimme Credit
“Valeant Debt-Loaded Deal Binge Casts Doubt on Strategy: Real M&A.”
Bloomberg, May 27, 2014
“Valeant’s
strategy depends on people continuing to drink this Kool Aid it’s
serving… They have to keep buying at a heavier and heavier and more
expensive pace to keep this up. What happens when they can’t? There’s
no inherent growth, and the debt side of this is a very big part of
the story that the stock market is ignoring.”*
Jim Chanos,
President and Founder, Kynikos Associates
CNBC Fast Money Halftime Report, May 15, 2014
“We're short
because it's a roll up and roll ups present a unique set of problems.
Roll ups are generally accounting-driven, and we certainly think
that's the case in Valeant. We think Valeant is playing some very
aggressive accounting games when they buy companies, write down the
assets.
But really, for us, and we were short before the Allergan
announcement, a roll up is a roll up and you have to analyze a company
that’s not growing organically and has to deliver value by doing
bigger and bigger acquisitions, and usually the companies do an
acquisition too far.”*
Matthew
Herper, Senior Editor for Pharma and Healthcare,
Forbes
“Valeant Pharma's Arguments About Drug Research Are Misleading And
Wrong.” Forbes, June 12, 2014
“…[Valeant’s]
treatment of figures relating to the industry’s R&D productivity is so
indefensible as to beg the question of whether its executives can
really command the facts they are using, or whether they really
understand the trends on which they say they are basing their
business. A one-hour call with four of Valeant’s top executives last
night did not convince me otherwise.”*
“…By picking
only the largest companies, Valeant gets to not include Allergan,
which, like Novartis, has an 8% return on R&D by Evans’s numbers … If
Valeant is at war with inefficiency, shouldn’t it buy someone
inefficient?”*
“The general
trend is true — drug companies are buying innovation more often — but
Valeant’s figure is at best so badly thought-out that it doesn’t make
any sense. At worst it’s deceptive.”*
In addition,
executives from Morgan Stanley, the investment bank understood to have
recently been retained by Valeant, have sent emails directly to
Allergan’s management team that suggest they share the concerns of
Allergan and the above third parties.
Robert
Kindler, Vice Chairman and Global Head of M&A, Morgan Stanley
Email to Allergan’s CEO, David Pyott, and CFO, Jeff Edwards, May
13, 2014
“My takeaway
is that AGN is not being nearly aggressive enough in going after the
VRX business model and currency.”*
David Horn,
Managing Director, Investment Banking Division (Healthcare), Morgan
Stanley
Email to Jeff Edwards, May 18, 2014
“Part of what
Rob [Kindler] is suggesting [to Allergan] is to allow him to use his
significant relationships with media and analysts to provide a clear
and detailed articulation of why Valeant is a house of cards and your
investors should not want to take their stock.”*
As announced on
June 10, 2014, Allergan’s Board of Directors, after consulting with
its independent financial and legal advisors, unanimously determined
that the re-revised unsolicited proposal dated May 30, 2014 by
Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. and Valeant substantially
undervalues the Company, creates significant risks and uncertainties
for the stockholders of Allergan, and is not in the best interests of
the Company and its stockholders.
Goldman, Sachs &
Co. and BofA Merrill Lynch are serving as financial advisors to the
Company and Latham & Watkins, Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A. and
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are serving as legal counsel to the
Company.
About
Allergan
Allergan is a
multi-specialty health care company established more than 60 years ago
with a commitment to uncover the best of science and develop and
deliver innovative and meaningful treatments to help people reach
their life's potential. Today, we have approximately 11,600 highly
dedicated and talented employees, global marketing and sales
capabilities with a presence in more than 100 countries, a rich and
ever-evolving portfolio of pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices
and over-the-counter consumer products, and state-of-the-art resources
in R&D, manufacturing and safety surveillance that help millions of
patients see more clearly, move more freely and express themselves
more fully. From our beginnings as an eye care company to our focus
today on several medical specialties, including eye care,
neurosciences, medical aesthetics, medical dermatology, breast
aesthetics, and urologics, Allergan is proud to celebrate more than 60
years of medical advances and proud to support the patients and
customers who rely on our products and the employees and communities
in which we live and work. For more information regarding Allergan, go
to:
www.allergan.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press
release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of
the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to statements regarding
a proposed offer or proposal by Valeant and/or Pershing Square. These
forward-looking statements are made as of the date they were first
issued and are based on current expectations as well as the beliefs
and assumptions of management. Forward-looking statements are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors
or circumstances that are beyond Allergan’s control. Allergan
expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these
forward-looking statements except as required by law. Additional
information concerning these and other risks can be found in press
releases issued by Allergan, as well as Allergan’s public filings with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion
under the heading “Risk Factors” in Allergan’s most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Copies of Allergan's press releases and additional information about
Allergan are available at
www.allergan.com or you can
contact the Allergan Investor Relations Department by calling
1-714-246-4636.
Important
Additional Information
The Company, its
directors and certain of its officers and employees are participants
in solicitations of Company stockholders. Information regarding the
names of the Company’s directors and executive officers and their
respective interests in the Company by security holdings or otherwise
is set forth in the Company’s proxy statement for its 2014 annual
meeting of stockholders, filed with the SEC on March 26, 2014, as
supplemented by the proxy information filed with the SEC on April 22,
2014. Additional information can be found in the Company’s Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, filed with
the SEC on February 25, 2014 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for
the quarter ended March 31, 2014, filed with the SEC on May 7, 2014.
To the extent holdings of the Company’s securities have changed since
the amounts printed in the proxy statement for the 2014 annual meeting
of stockholders, such changes have been reflected on Initial
Statements of Beneficial Ownership on Form 3 or Statements of Change
in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. These documents are
available free of charge at the SEC’s website at
www.sec.gov.STOCKHOLDERS ARE
ENCOURAGED TO READ ANY COMPANY SOLICITATION STATEMENT (INCLUDING ANY
SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS THAT THE COMPANY
MAY FILE WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY
WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Stockholders will be able to
obtain, free of charge, copies of any solicitation statement and any
other documents filed by the Company with the SEC at the SEC’s website
at
www.sec.gov. In addition, copies
will also be available at no charge at the Investors section of the
Company’s website at
www.allergan.com.
*Permission to
use quotations was neither sought nor obtained.
Contacts
Allergan
Contacts
Bonnie Jacobs, Allergan, (714) 246-5134
Joele Frank, Dan Katcher, and Scott Bisang, Joele Frank, Wilkinson
Brimmer Katcher, (212) 355-4449
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