Just a few months before hitting that milestone, Mr. Ackman’s Pershing Square, worth roughly $11 billion,
had poured some $3.2 billion into Valeant’s stock, at an average price of around $190 per share.
In Valeant Stake, Still Unresolved Questions for Activist Investor -
The so-called Trump Bump, the stock market rally that has unexpectedly ignited the Dow Jones industrial average to soar close to 21,000 since President Trump’s election, has swept up in its powerful force lots of stocks, especially those of Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs
and JPMorgan Chase, which are at, or near, record highs.
That has meant big financial trouble for one of its largest shareholders, Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund company managed by the billionaire William A. Ackman, whose efforts to salvage Valeant —
and his reputation as a savvy investor — are looking increasingly desperate.
Pershing Square still owns around 18.1 million shares, a 5.3 percent stake, currently worth about $301 million.
Armed with the knowledge that Valeant intended to make an unsolicited bid, Mr. Ackman spent $3.2 billion to buy a 9.7 percent stake in Allergan.
While Mr. Ackman hailed Mr. Trump’s victory in a November interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin of , he cannot be pleased
that Valeant has been left behind in the latest round of market euphoria.