Valeant adjusted earnings rise with sales

(Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc , Canada's biggest public drugmaker, reported a lower net profit on Friday, partly due to costs associated with acquisitions, even as revenue jumped and adjusted earnings rose.

Net income fell for the third quarter ended September 30 as acquired research and development, restructuring, amortization and other costs rose.

But the firm's adjusted income, which excludes many of those items, was higher, as product sales jumped 50 percent.

Montreal-based Valeant has been on the acquisition trail since its 2010 takeover by Biovail Corp, which assumed the Valeant name.

With a market value of about C$17 billion, Valeant has favored segments where patients often pay out of pocket, such as opthalmology and dermatology, cutting its exposure to cost-sensitive insurers.

The company announced a $2.6 billion deal in early September to buy top U.S. dermatology rival Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp .

Also in September, Valeant said it had acquired Visudyne, a drug used to treat age-related blindness, from Canadian biotech company QLT Inc for $112.5 million.

Net income in the quarter fell to $7.6 million, or 2 cents a share, from $40.9 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, income rose to $357.5 million, or $1.15 a share, compared with $211.9 million, or 66 cents a share. Total revenue rose 47 percent to $884.1 million.

GUIDANCE

The company narrowed its forecast for the current quarter's adjusted profit, which it calls cash earnings per share, to $1.30 to $1.35 for 2012. It had previously forecast earnings between $1.25 and $1.45 per share.

But Valeant also said the updated guidance excludes a new 12 cent per share interest expense associated with the Medicis deal. If included, that cost would bring the forecast below previous guidance, to $1.18 to $1.23 a share.

(Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto; Additional reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/valeant-profit-slides-narrows-fourth-quarter-cash-eps-121643233--finance.html

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