(Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.TO) (VRX.N) on Tuesday decided to take the name of its best performing optical products unit as part of a turnaround plan and raised its 2018 revenue forecast.
Valeant will become Bausch Health Companies Inc from July as Chief Executive Officer Joseph Papa works to restore investor confidence after several investigations into the company’s accounting and pricing practices hit its shares.
The company has lost nearly 93 percent of value from its 2015 highs and sold several businesses to pay down debt, which ballooned to more than $30 billion following a spate of deal-making under its previous CEO Mike Pearson.
“It became clear that Bausch Health Companies best represents the company we are today,” said Papa in a statement.
The name change reflects the company’s optical products business, Bausch and Lomb, which brought in sales of $1.10 billion in the first quarter and accounted for more than half of the company’s total revenue.
The company, which would trade under the new ticker symbol “BHC”, has reduced its debt by more than 20 percent in the past two years, since Papa took the helm.
U.S.-listed shares of the Canadian drugmaker rose 6.3 percent to $19.3 in trading before the bell.
The company raised its full-year revenue forecast range to $8.15 billion-$8.35 billion from $8.10 billion-$8.30 billion, partly helped by performance of its Bausch and Lomb unit.
Net loss attributable to the company was at $2.69 billion, or $7.68 per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a profit of $628 million, or $1.79 per share, a year earlier.
Total revenues fell 5.4 percent to $1.96 billion.
According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, the company earned 88 cents per share, excluding items, beating analysts’ average estimate of 60 cents per share.
Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur
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