By Jonathan Schwarzberg
NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) will not see any changes to its planned refinancing in the wake of billionaire William Ackman and his hedge fund Pershing Square (NYSE:SQ) selling its share of the company, sources said.
Valeant is extending the maturity date on three loans to 2022 in order to match the maturity date of its term loan F. The company is also paying down revolving credit debt and its term loan A debt as part of the refinancing effort, which includes the US$3.25bn sale of secured notes.
The company, which has approximately US$30bn in debt, saw its stock drop to all-time lows as it dipped under US$11 per share on Tuesday after news emerged that Ackman and his hedge funder were selling their entire position of approximately 27 million shares. The stock was trading north of US$250m during mid-2015.
"The amendment has been approved and the term loan F will be allocating today," said a source familiar with the transaction. "The deal has been finalized and is not impacted by the Ackman news."
Valeant asked lenders to allow it to extend the maturity on three term loans to match the 2022 maturity of its term loan F. The company also requested the removal of two covenants requiring a specific interest coverage amount and setting a maximum amount of secured leverage.
The amount of debt being added to the loan due in 2022 totaled US$3.06bn. Both the existing loan and add-on are priced at 475bp over Libor with a 0.75% floor. The add-on priced at a discount of 99.75 cents on the dollar. Barclays (LON:BARC) led the transaction.
The bank also led the sale of US$1.25bn of 6.5% notes due in March 2022 and US$2bn of 7% notes due in March 2024. Both were issued on a secured basis.
The new notes traded down about 0.8 points with the 6.5% notes on the Ackman news settling at 101 and the 7% notes trading at 101.25, according to MarketAxess data.
The company's unsecured notes fell by as many as 2.25 points.
The loan debt traded better and remained unchanged. The existing term loan F was trading in the 100.375-100.75 context on Tuesday, sources said.
Barclays declined comment. Valeant did not immediately return a request for comment.