VALEANT STOCK DIPS BELOW US$ 10

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is a single-digit stock once again.

Valeant dropped 6.7 per cent to close at US$ 9.50 on Wednesday, its lowest intraday level since 2009, after the Australian Business Review reported that the company was struggling to sell a pharmaceutical distribution unit for as much as it sought.

The report added to signs Valeant is having trouble divesting some of its businesses. The firm announced two deals worth US$ 2.1 billion in January, a first step in its endeavour to raise cash — but not enough to drastically lower its US$30-billion borrowing load. Chief executive Joe Papa said last year that the company could sell about US$8 billion in assets.

“This is another disappointment in what was promised to be US$8-billion worth of asset sales that so far has only been approximately US$ 2 billion,” David Maris at Wells Fargo & Co. who rates the stock the equivalent of sell, said in a note to clients. He called US$ 10 a share a “critical psychological price point.”

Three final bids for the Australian iNova unit came in at around US$681 million, below Valeant’s expectations, the Australian Business Review reported without saying where it got the information.

Valeant is now back to its 2009 levels, way below its August, 2015, peak of US$262.52 a share. The company, domiciled in Laval, Que., but run in the U. S., has plummeted amid government investigations into its pricing strategy.