In an email to , Pershing Square said, “Valeant is an anomaly in an outstanding record over nearly 14 years.”
But while his funds notched an exceptional 40 percent gain in 2014 — much of it attributable to the Allergan trade
that has drawn the lawsuit — Mr. Ackman’s funds lost 13.5 percent last year and 20.5 percent in 2015.
The plaintiffs were investors who had missed out on gains in Allergan stock in 2014
because they had sold shares without knowing about Valeant’s impending bid, while Pershing Square, which did know about it, was buying Allergan shares.
It would have been very costly for Valeant to finance a takeover of Allergan; instead it struck an agreement on Feb. 25,
2014, allowing Pershing Square to take a nearly 10 percent stake in Allergan to support Valeant’s takeover efforts.
But only a few months later, Mr. Ackman and his investors began riding Valeant’s shares all the way from $262 to $11, driven both by rival investors who had bet against Valeant’s shares
and former fans who dumped the stock as bad news emerged.
Valeant, overseen by J. Michael Pearson, quietly strikes an agreement with Pershing allowing the fund company to take a nearly 10 percent stake in Allergan, the pharmaceutical giant
and producer of Botox, to support Valeant’s takeover of the company.
In a statement, Pershing Square noted that the firm “has generated billions of dollars of profits for its investors
and double the stock market returns since the inception of the firm inclusive of our large loss on Valeant.”
“Unfortunately,” it continued, “we cannot guarantee that every one of our investments will be successful.