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apologizes???? lolololol what a joke




Bill Ackman apologizes for $4 billion Valeant mistake (finally)

Published: Mar 30, 2017 7:27 a.m. ET

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“We misjudged the prior management team, and this contributed to our loss,” he writes in his shareholder letter
Bloomberg News
Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has said sorry to shareholders.

By
RACHEL
KONING BEALS
NEWS EDITOR
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who rode out his stake in troubled Canadian pharmaceutical firm Valeant to a $4 billion loss, has delivered a long-awaited apology to investors.

“Clearly, our investment in Valeant was a huge mistake,” he wrote in Pershing Square Holdings’s 2016 annual letter to investors, out this week and widely distributed late Wednesday.

“The highly acquisitive nature of Valeant’s business required flawless capital allocation and operational execution, and therefore, a larger than normal degree of reliance on management,” he wrote.

“In retrospect, we misjudged the prior management team, and this contributed to our loss. We deeply regret this mistake, which has cost all of us a tremendous amount, and which has damaged the record of success of our firm,” he said.


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Valeant Pharmaceutical’s VRX, -1.55% stock has fallen from a peak of $279 in 2015 to around $11 this month.

Ackman hadn’t previously apologized — at least, in such direct terms — for the big loss. The hit came from holding what was eventually nearly a 10% stake in the drugmaker, which was fighting charges of accounting fraud and price gouging, among other issues.

The hedge fund manager first accelerated Pershing’s investment when Valeant’s stock was priced near $196 a share in early 2015; by the time he sold it this month, it was worth $11 a share.

Don’t miss: What Ackman’s exit means for Valeant

Ackman’s first interactions with Valeant were in a joint attempt to buy Allergan AGN, +0.68% , another pharmaceutical company. Ackman’s Pershing purchased Allergan shares, ostensibly to push the company to accept a merger with Valeant. Allergan was instead sold to a white knight; a profitable stock move for Ackman, at least in the short term, and a transaction eventually named in an Allergan shareholder suit.

Read: Valeant CEO Joseph Papa made $62.7 million last year

The management team mentioned in letter, no longer in place, was led by former Valeant Chief Executive Michael Pearson, who was ousted last April. This week, Pearson sued Valeant for not paying him 3 million shares of stock he says were owed to him under his separation agreement.

Read: Hedge fund buyers are getting soaked

“My approach to mistakes is that I personally assume 100% of the responsibility on behalf of the firm while sharing the credit for our successes,” Ackman wrote. “While I and the rest of the Pershing Square team have suffered significant losses from this failed investment as we are collectively the largest investors in the funds, it is much more painful to lose our shareholders’ money, and for this I deeply and profoundly apologize.”

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