NEW YORK (Reuters) - ValueAct Capital, a top shareholder in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc , supports the company's standalone plan and does not believe the Canadian drugmaker has to buy Allergan Inc , the investor told Reuters on Monday.
ValueAct likes a potential combination between Valeant and its takeover target ALLERGAN (AGN.NY) but said a drawn-out bidding war for the Botox maker might be too distracting.
?A year on the sidelines waiting for (Allergan) to do a scorched earth sort of defense is a huge cost to Valeant," ValueAct Chief Executive Jeff Ubben told Reuters in an interview.
ValueAct has a roughly 5.7 percent stake in Valeant, making it the company's third-largest investor, according to Thomson Reuters data as of early May.
(Reporting by Nadia Damouni, additional reporting by Olivia Oran, Writing by Soyoung Kim; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
