Ackman's Pershing Square Withdraws Call For Allergan Special Shareholder Meeting

(RTTNews) - Activist investor William Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management LP has in a regulatory filing on Tuesday formally withdrawn its request for a special shareholder meeting of Botox maker Allergan, Inc. (AGN) following a windfall he made despite losing out on the deal to acquire it. The meeting was scheduled for December 18.

The move, which came a day after Allergan agreed to be acquired by Activas Plc (ACT), also signals an end to Ackman's seven-month pursuit for Allergan along with Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (VRX.TO, VRX). Ackman is said to be supporting the Allergan-Activas deal.

Valeant had said in a statement on Monday that it "cannot justify to its own shareholders paying a price of $219 or more per share for Allergan." Despite losing out on the deal, Ackman and Valeant Pharma are sitting on a huge profit on their holdings in Allergan. Ackman is sitting on paper gains of about $2.2 billion, while Valeant gains nearly $400 million as it is entitled to get 15 percent of Pershing's total profit of about $2.6 billion.

Ackman's Pershing, the largest Allergan shareholder, reportedly bought the 28.8 million shares or 9.7 percent stake in Allergan at an average price of $129.28 per share.

Pershing Square formally withdrew its call request for a Allergan special shareholder meeting that was called to remove six members from the current Allergan board.

On Monday, Dublin, Ireland-based generic drug maker Actavis agreed to acquire Allergan in a cash and stock deal valued at about $219 per share or $66 billion. The deal helped to fend off an hostile takeover bid from Valeant Pharma, which was pursued jointly with Ackman's Pershing Square.

Previously, Irvine, California-based Allergan had held talks to buy Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (SLXP) in order to fend off the $53 billion hostile bid from Valeant Pharma, but failed to reach a deal over valuation concerns. Valeant had made an initial offer of $45.7 billion in late April.

Allergan had also contacted other drug makers, including Sanofi (SNY) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to check if they are interested in a takeover in order to fend of the Valeant bid.

AGN closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $213.37, up $4.22 or 2.02% on a volume of 8.62 million shares.