Accountants Close Review of Valeant, Send Shares Soaring 10%

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What:After reporting that its internal investigation of its accounting practices has come to a close, and amid reports that it's sweetening its offer to debt holders, shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals jumped 10.3% today.

So what: This morning, Valeant Pharmaceuticals announced that an ad hoc committee of its Board of Directors are putting the wraps on a review of accounting practices. Previously, the committee discovered that Valeant had incorrectly reported $58 million in sales in 2014 that it also recorded on its books in 2015.

The accounting mishap stemmed from its now-shuttered deal with Philidor, a specialty pharmacy that distributed Valeant drugs and that Valeant had arranged to acquire. Prior to inking a deal that would give it control of Philidor, Valeant recorded revenue from its drugs when sales were made to Philidor, rather than when Philidor sold those drugs to patients. After making its agreement with Philidor, the company should have swapped to recording revenue when sales were made to patients. The company failed to do that in 2014, but it recorded those sales properly in 2015.

Valeant's ad hoc committee found no additional problems beyond that previously reported mistake, thus alleviating concerns that another shoe could drop at the embattled company. Because the company couldn't file audited financials with the SEC until the review finished, its coming to an end is a major milestone.

Now what:Getting its financials up to date with the SEC is critical because a failure to do so by month's end could have allowed debt holders of $30.9 billion in long-term liabilities to cry default. Now that the review is complete, management says it's on track to deliver those documents to the SEC by April 29.

Additionally, Reuters reports that Valeant is offering to boost the interest it's paying on its debt in order to secure support from its debt holders. According to Reuters, Valeant will pay an additional point of interest on its debt, with the rate being paid as long as leverage exceeds 1.75. Currently, Valeant's leverage ratio is 5.8. The agreement also calls for any proceeds from asset sales to be used to pay down debt as long as the company remains out of compliance in filing its financials with regulators and it has a leverage ratio at or below 4.5.

At this time, it's not confirmed that bond holders will accept this deal, but it is good news that negotiations that could shore up its financial position are happening.

The article Accountants Close Review of Valeant, Send Shares Soaring 10% originally appeared on Fool.com.

Todd Campbell has no position in any stocks mentioned. Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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