Valeant’s Medicis takeover offer centres on anti-aging market

With 15 acquisition offers this year alone, Valeant Pharmaceuticals  International Inc. chief executive J. Michael Pearson looks like a  wheeler-dealer in a hurry.

But his latest bet, a $2.6-billion cash bid for U.S.-based Medicis  Pharmaceutical Corp., is all about slowing down the effects of time. It’s a  gambit to grab a larger share of the anti-aging and dermatology products market.  The belief? That spending money to look younger and healthier will only increase  in the years ahead.

Valeant shareholders, which have seen the value of their investment more than  double over the past two years, are banking on more of the same. They pushed  Valeant’s stock up 15% to $57.94 Tuesday in trading on the Toronto Stock  Exchange. Medicis stock surged 38% to $43.65 in New York.

“The deal looks interesting — if they can close it,” said Bank of America  Merrill Lynch analyst Gregg Gilbert. “We cannot rule out interest from other  potential strategic or financial buyers, particularly as the process leading up  to this particular announcement was very brief.”

Buying Medicis would vault Montreal-based Valeant to the top spot among U.S.  dermatology companies with combined gross sales of $2.5-billion a year.

Read the full article at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/fp/Valeant+Medicis+takeover+offer+centres+anti+aging+market/7190529/story.html

Source:  by Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post on September 5, 2012 at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/fp/Valeant+Medicis+takeover+offer+centres+anti+aging+market/7190529/story.html