Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE: VRX) has raised its offer for Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) for the second time this week. The latest offer, announced just minutes ago includes $72 a share and 0.83 shares of Valeant common stock for each share of Allergan.
Just two days ago Valeant raised its offer by $10 a share, from $48.30 to $58.30. The stock portion has remained constant.
Pershing Square Capital Managment, Allergan’s largest shareholder has agreed to elect only stock in Valeant as payment for its 9.7% stake in the Botox maker. Pershing Square’s CEO, Bill Ackman, has agreed to exchange each of the firm’s Allergan shares for 1.22659 shares of Valeant. Ackman said he called Valeant’s CEO this morning and “offered to give up $600 million of value to other Allergan shareholders and exchange our shares for Valeant stock if Valeant were prepared to increase its offer to other Allergan shareholders.”
Allergan has not responded to Valeant’s offer, but the stock is responding by rising nearly 5% to $166.01 in a 52-week range of $81.33 to $170.05.