Any thoughts on VRX? A lot has been made of Ackman's dump of 27MM shares at a big loss. He wanted the tax loss and not the hassle.
What has not been made public, and what I think could be very interesting is - who was the counterparty that BOUGHT those shares at 11?
Here is what we know:
--Ackman says he sold at 11
--up to that announcement, 11.36 was the 52 week low (it has traded in the high 10s after the announcement).
Here is what I think:
--the 27MM shares were moved in a single negotiated trade with a single new party. If that many shares had been sold in the market the market would have moved, and the trade would not have been announced at a price below the 52 week trading low.
--VRX does not seem to be the kind of stock a passive investor would really like
--the only two possibilities left are that the buyer is a raider even more aggressive than Ackman, or that a company looking to acquire VRX has taken an initial stake via this off-market transaction.
I thiunk we will see a 13G soon - that 27MM shares is a 6-7% stake in VRX I think. Maybe for more than that, as I would think whatever party took 27MM at 11 could have accounted for a bunch of the buying in the 2 very big volume days since Ackman's sale became public knowledge.
What do you think? WHo do you think bought those shares, and what do you think they will be doing?
If I could afford to buy all of them, I would not need to buy any of them and I sure wouldn't be spending time on the message boards!
