Valeant shares plunged after the close after CNBC’s David Faber first reported that Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman had liquidated his entire stake, and has effectively resigned from the board, saying he won’t stand for re-election. According to Bloomberg, Pershing Square is offering 27.23 million shares via Jefferies, at a price of $11.10-$11.40.
Quoted by Reuters, Ackman had the following brief statement on what may have been his worst ever investment: “It was time to get out of the position, investment required disproportionately large amount of time and resources.”
The stock plunged as much as 10% on the news.
Having spoken to Ackman, CNBC’s Scott Wapner tweets that Bill Ackman said he leaves Valeant “in a position where the business can recover.” He adds that Ackman sold the stake “because position couldn’t move the needle” for Pershing Square “even if stock doubled from here.” Ackman also admits that he didn’t realize how bad VRX situation was until he joined the board.
That said, he says that VRX has an “excellent board and management team and now has capital structure in place” even though he underestimated the damage that media coverage, falling stock price would have.
Finally, he states Valeant is “a case where the company destroyed its reputation and it caused a loss of talent and focus” and that Ackman “tried his best to set the company up so that it can be successful going forward.”
And with the biggest potential selling overhang now gone from the stock, this may finally be the bottom for Valeant.
Pershing’s press release is below:
