Valeant has upped its unsolicited takeover bid for Allergan and invited its directors to a meeting.
The new offer is US $58.30 per share, an increase of US $10 over the previous offer. As with its last attempt, Valeant is also offering 0.83 Valeant share for each Allergan share, bringing the overall offer to approximately US $50 billion. As well, Valeant is promising to pay up to US $25 per share based on the success of Darpin, an ophthalmological drug being developed by Allergan. Valeant would invest up to US $400 million in this drug and would retain the employees responsible for its development.
Valeant CEO Michael Pearson has also invited Allergan's directors to meet with them, stating that Allergan's recent public attack on Valeant's business model reveals a lack of understanding of the pharmaceutical company's operations and performance. Pearson continues to maintain that Valeant's strategy would create substantial short, medium and long-term returns for Allergan shareholders.
Just as importantly, we believe that together the two companies will be better able to serve the patient and the medical communities with a more complete product offer and ongoing innovations, he added.
Allergan's board will examine the offer before making recommendations to its shareholders.
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