Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) Pershing Square Capital and Valeant Pharmaceutical (VRX, Financial) are said to be planning to boost their offer to acquire Botox maker Allergan (AGN, Financial) by $15 a share. The enhancement offer marks the third increase to the original bid by Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio)'s Pershing Square Capital and Valeant.Ă‚ The latest increase in the bid is intended to keep Allergan from striking a rival deal. The bid by Pershing Square and Valeant could potenitally value Allergan at over $56 billion and if the duo's can it the deal with Allegan then the merger will be the largest of the year so far.
Earlier Allergan called a truce with Pershing Square and Valeant by reaching a aggreement over a special shareholder meet that was originally scheduled date of Dec. 18. All shareholders of Allergan record on Oct. 30 will be entitled to receive a notices and vote at the Dec. 18 meeting. The plan to raise the price by $15 more dollars a share is to drive event driven hedge funds and other investors to invest in a the share before Oct. 30 so they can vote at the meeting on Dec. 18. The plan is to oust a majority of Allergan board of directors to make way for merger talks that the current board rebuffed.
The duos have been pursuing Allergan since Apirl of this year, when they teamed up to make an unsolicited offer for Allergan. The original offer from the duo was valued at around $47 billion or $153 per share. Then in May the duo raised their bid, but before Allergan had a chance to respond, the bidder raised its offer again to about $53 billion or $177 a share in cash and stock. Allergan has been having talks in recent weeks with Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (SLXP, Financial) to acquire which would make the company to large for Valeant to swallow. The duo could potentially raised their offer to $200 per share in cash or stocks if that what its takes to take to merger with Allergan.
