Page 25 - atoday

BUSINESS A25
Valeant shares slide despite CEO’s return after long illness
LINDA A. JOHNSON
AP Business Writer
Shares of Valeant Pharma-
ceuticals tanked Monday,
amid ongoing turmoil over
the embattled drugmak-
er’s delayed financial re-
sults and its leader’s health. its questionable relation-
Even news Sunday that
CEO Michael Pearson is re-
turning immediately after
nine weeks recovering from
pneumonia and unspeci-
fied complications failed to
buoy Valeant shares.
The shares are trading at
less than one-third of their
GE tries to woo investors with ‘digital industrial’ vision
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP)
— General Electric is
promising to boost its
earnings by about 15
percent in each of the next
three years and dole out
$67 billion to shareholders
as CEO Jeffrey Immelt tries
to create a sleeker, “digital
industrial” company.
The $67 billion will be paid
through a combination of
quarterly dividends and
repurchases of GE’s stock
through 2018. The Fairfield,
Connecticut, company
returned $33 billion to
shareholders last year.
Reducing the amount
of GE’s outstanding
stock will also help the
company realize its goal
of increasing its adjusted
annual earnings from $1.31
per share last year to more
than $2 per share in 2018.
Immelt made the financial
pledge while spelling out
his vision for the 138-year-
old company in a letter
released Monday with
GE’s annual report.
Lumber Liquidators 4Q losses much greater than expected
TOANO, Va. (AP) — Lum-
ber Liquidators swung to a
fourth-quarter loss that was
more than three times larg-
er than expected as fallout
over the safety of some of
its products continues to
rattle the embattled floor-
ing manufacturer.
Its shares dropped more
than 4 percent in afternoon
trading Monday.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
said last week that people
exposed to certain types of
Tuesday 1 March 2016

$263.81 high last August. reacting to Valeant’s an- Laval, Quebec, also again and pharmaceuticals ana-
That was right before Va- nouncement in a state- delayed announcing its lyst at University of Michi-
leant’s practice of buying ment Sunday that is with- preliminary fourth-quarter gan’s Ross School of Busi-
rights to old drugs and jack- drawing all its financial and 2015 financial results, ness, wrote in an email.
ing up the prices came un- forecasts. which were to be released Pearson’s convalescence,
der congressional scrutiny, Nomura equity analyst Monday. The company cit- and the limited informa-
and a few months before Shibani Malhotra wrote ed Pearson’s return to work tion the company released
Monday that while Pear- as the reason. about his condition, aren’t
ship with a drug distributor son’s return to the helm is “Valeant won’t turn around the only concerns drag-
raised concerns about the a “positive,” for the com- until it restores its credibility, ging down Valeant shares.
accuracy of its financial re- pany, she’s concerned by and it doesn’t help to bring Last Tuesday, Valeant said
porting. Valeant’s decision to with- back the CEO who cre- it would delay filing its 2015
Valeant shares dropped draw its 2016 guidance, ated the questions about annual report with regu-
$7.80, or 9.7 percent, to which was confirmed just financial reporting on his lators while it sorts out its
$72.81 in late-afternoon six weeks ago. watch and his handling of former relationship with
trading Monday. Valeant Pharmaceuticals questions about Philidor,” the mail-order pharmacy
Investors appear to be International Inc., based in Erik Gordon, a professor Philidor.q
getting advice from “early The shares shed 22 cents
career leaders” in what he to $29.18 in Monday’s late
described as a “humbling” afternoon trading.
experience. “Through In trying to reposition itself as
their eyes, I can see the a company on the cutting
evil nature of corporate edge of technology, GE is
bureaucracy; they are a hoping to recapture some
good mirror for my own of the luster that it has
failings,” wrote Immelt, lost amid problems in the
who has been running GE s financial services division
since 2001. that once was among its
As part of its makeover, GE brightest spots. Once the
has jettisoned most of its most valuable company
financial services and other in the world, GE’s market
operations that no longer value has declined by
General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt speaks at the annual IHS fit into Immelt’s strategy. about $70 billion during the
CERAWeek global energy conference in Houston. General
Electric is promising to boost its earnings by about 15 percent Last year, GE negotiated past decade.
in each of the next three years and dole out $67 billion to
shareholders as Immelt tries to create a “digital industrial” sales totaling $157 billion Meanwhile, investors
company. Immelt made the financial pledge while spelling
out his vision for the 138-year-old company in a letter released On the flip side, the have been gravitating to
Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, with GE’s annual report.
company became an technology companies as
(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
even bigger player than the Internet and a variety
it already is in the energy of gadgets reshape society
industry with a $10.6 billion and the economy.
The wide-ranging letter transformation won’t be acquisition of the power Technology bellwethers
calls for General Electric easy.
Co. to become less “There is no blueprint for and transmission of French Apple Inc., Google
bureaucratic and more what we are trying to do
innovative as Immelt strives and, at times, it will be manufacturer Alstom. parent Alphabet Inc. and
to turn it into one of the messy,” he wrote.
world’s 10 biggest software To help him sculpt GE The reorganization went Microsoft Corp. are now
companies by 2020. into a nimbler company,
Immelt conceded the the 60-year-old Immelt is over well with investors. the world’s three most
GE’s stock climbed 23 valuable companies and
percent last year while 12-year-old Facebook Inc.
the Standard & Poor’s 500 also is currently worth more
dipped by about 1 percent. than GE.q
Lumber Liquidators’ lami- Lumber Liquidators agreed Wall Street had expected, sociated with locations re-
nate flooring were three to pay more than $13 mil- according to a survey cently opened or closed.
times more likely to get lion earlier this month for by Zacks Investment Re- The Toano, Virginia, com-
cancer than the agency illegally importing hard- search. The company last pany said Monday it be-
had previously predicted. wood flooring after the year earned $17.3 million, lieves sales continue to be
The company stopped company pleaded guilty to or 64 cents per share, dur- hurt by questions about the
selling the Chinese-made environmental crimes last ing the same quarter. quality of products import-
laminate floors in May, a year. Lumber Liquidators Revenue came in at $234.8 ed from China. For the full
few months after CBS news pleaded guilty to environ- million, also well below year, Lumber Liquidators
show “60 Minutes” report- mental crimes in October. the $254.5 million analysts Holdings Inc. lost $2.08 per
ed that those floors contain For the period ended Dec. were expecting. Sales at share on revenue of $978.8
high levels of formalde- 31, the hardwood flooring stores open at least a year million. The company also
hyde. Lumber Liquidators retailer lost $19.8 million, or dropped 17.2 percent. announced that Dennis
also began providing cus- 73 cents per share, which That’s key gauge of a re- Knowles will serves as chief
tomers with free air quality far exceeded the per- tailer’s health because it operating officer, effective
tests. share loss of 23 cents that excludes the volatility as- Tuesday. q