Bill Ackman drives board of Botox maker Allergan to tie-up with Valeant
Bill Ackman’s hedge fund has named its top picks for Allergan’s board as it attempts to steer the Botox manufacturer towards a tie-up with Valeant.
Pershing Square, which has snapped up an almost 10 per cent stake in Allergan in recent months, said yesterday it wanted to remove the current board and install six new directors, if enough shareholders backed its plan.
The new team would include Betsy Atkins, the boss of tech investment firm Baja; Cathleen Black, a former director at publisher Hearst; and Fred Eshelman, a healthcare veteran that developed drugs for Glaxo in the 1990s before launching his own companies.
The hedge fund has been working with Canadian group Valeant to try to take over Allergan, which has spurned the pair’s $53bn proposal.
Pershing Square is trying to build support from other Allergan investors so it can call a shareholder meeting and push through its changes. Allergan, meanwhile, is weighing up acquisitions of its own to make itself too big to buy.