NEW YORK — Over the past six years, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has piled up a mountain of debt building its business through more than 50 acquisitions. It now may have to sell some of those very same assets to help pay off almost $5bn that will come due by or in 2018.To make matters worse, a related challenge is looming."It’s not so much, ‘Can they get a sale?’ It’s at what price," Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem said. Many of Valeant’s acquisitions were made under far different circumstances — before the drug maker attracted harsh scrutiny over its business practices and was forced to moderate or cut drug price increases that were a key part of its ability to generate cash."You buy dodgy assets at relatively high prices, you jack up the prices of the underlying products, cut costs to the bone and now you’re facing your moment of reckoning," said Amsellem, who has an "underweight" rating on the stock. "It’s pretty ugly."The bills are approaching fast. There are about...
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