By Ashutosh Pandey and Rod Nickel
Thu Feb 27, 2014 10:07am EST
<span id="articleText"><span id="midArticle_start"/> (Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc sees close to 50 opportunities for mergers or acquisitions, its chief executive said on Thursday, as it aims to become one of the world's five biggest pharmaceutical companies.
<span id="midArticle_1"/> The company, Canada's largest listed drugmaker and maker of antidepressant drug Wellbutrin and over-the-counter remedy Cold-FX, swung to a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit driven by the acquisition of contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb Holdings Inc.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> Shares rose 3 percent in Toronto and New York in morning trading, touching all-time highs. The Toronto-listed stock is up 35 percent so far in 2014.
<span id="midArticle_3"/> Valeant, which aims to become one of the world's top five pharmaceutical companies by market capitalization by 2016, has grown rapidly through acquisitions amid a consolidation wave in the specialty pharmaceutical sector.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> Chief executive officer Michael Pearson said the company is in multiple deal discussions, as it typically is, and has no set plan for how it will triple its market cap to $150 billion.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> "In terms of the number of opportunities out there, it's not five, 10 or 15, it's probably closer to 50," Pearson said on a conference call with analysts. Some of the opportunities are with privately held companies, others are based outside the United States and there are also pieces of larger companies that interest Valeant, he said.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> "A lot of this is very opportunistic. A lot of it depends on the price."
<span id="midArticle_7"/> Pearson said Valeant was not interested in Forest Laboratories Inc, which generic drugmaker Actavis Plc said on February 18 it would buy for about $25 billion in cash and stock.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> Valeant is likely this year to pull off an acquisition similar in size to the $8.7 billion Bausch & Lomb purchase, Pearson said, and is also looking for smaller deals in China, Russia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> Valeant's net income attributable to the company was $123.8 million, or 36 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended December 31. The company reported a loss of $89.1 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.
<span id="midArticle_10"/> Cash earnings, or profit adjusted for one-time items, were$731.5 million, or $2.15 per share.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> Revenue more than doubled to $2.06 billion.
<span id="midArticle_12"/> Analysts had expected cash earnings of $2.06 per share on revenue of $2.06 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
<span id="midArticle_13"/> The company reaffirmed its 2014 guidance of cash earnings per share ranging from $8.25 to $8.75 and revenue of $8.2 billion to $8.6 billion. It expects to raise guidance once its $475 million acquisition of PreCision Dermatology has closed.
<span id="midArticle_14"/> (Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Ted Kerr, Kirti Pandey and Meredith Mazzilli)
<span id="midArticle_15"/>
Thu Feb 27, 2014 10:07am EST
<span id="articleText"><span id="midArticle_start"/> (Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc sees close to 50 opportunities for mergers or acquisitions, its chief executive said on Thursday, as it aims to become one of the world's five biggest pharmaceutical companies.
<span id="midArticle_1"/> The company, Canada's largest listed drugmaker and maker of antidepressant drug Wellbutrin and over-the-counter remedy Cold-FX, swung to a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit driven by the acquisition of contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb Holdings Inc.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> Shares rose 3 percent in Toronto and New York in morning trading, touching all-time highs. The Toronto-listed stock is up 35 percent so far in 2014.
<span id="midArticle_3"/> Valeant, which aims to become one of the world's top five pharmaceutical companies by market capitalization by 2016, has grown rapidly through acquisitions amid a consolidation wave in the specialty pharmaceutical sector.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> Chief executive officer Michael Pearson said the company is in multiple deal discussions, as it typically is, and has no set plan for how it will triple its market cap to $150 billion.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> "In terms of the number of opportunities out there, it's not five, 10 or 15, it's probably closer to 50," Pearson said on a conference call with analysts. Some of the opportunities are with privately held companies, others are based outside the United States and there are also pieces of larger companies that interest Valeant, he said.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> "A lot of this is very opportunistic. A lot of it depends on the price."
<span id="midArticle_7"/> Pearson said Valeant was not interested in Forest Laboratories Inc, which generic drugmaker Actavis Plc said on February 18 it would buy for about $25 billion in cash and stock.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> Valeant is likely this year to pull off an acquisition similar in size to the $8.7 billion Bausch & Lomb purchase, Pearson said, and is also looking for smaller deals in China, Russia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> Valeant's net income attributable to the company was $123.8 million, or 36 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended December 31. The company reported a loss of $89.1 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.
<span id="midArticle_10"/> Cash earnings, or profit adjusted for one-time items, were$731.5 million, or $2.15 per share.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> Revenue more than doubled to $2.06 billion.
<span id="midArticle_12"/> Analysts had expected cash earnings of $2.06 per share on revenue of $2.06 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
<span id="midArticle_13"/> The company reaffirmed its 2014 guidance of cash earnings per share ranging from $8.25 to $8.75 and revenue of $8.2 billion to $8.6 billion. It expects to raise guidance once its $475 million acquisition of PreCision Dermatology has closed.
<span id="midArticle_14"/> (Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Ted Kerr, Kirti Pandey and Meredith Mazzilli)
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