(Updates with comments on Pfizer in third paragraph.)
Dan Loeb, the founder of hedge fund firm Third Point, is suggesting that pharmaceutical companies Allergan Plc and Amgen Inc. consider a merger, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Loeb, who spoke at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York on Tuesday, said a deal between the two companies would create multiple avenues for growth, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the event is closed to the media.
The manager, who owns shares of both the companies, spent most of the presentation praising Allergan, which he compared to a baby thrown out with the bathwater during a sell-off in health-care stocks in August and September. He touted the company’s line of drugs and its executives, adding Allergan’s strong growth potential makes it different from its peers.
Third Point added to its stakes in Amgen and Allergan in the third quarter, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies were Third Point’s second- and third-largest positions as of Sept. 30, the filing showed.
Loeb also said that a potential merger between Allergan and Pfizer Inc. would make sense. Both companies confirmed in October that they’ve been discussing a deal. Pfizer could benefit from a tie-up with Dublin-based Allergan, which has a low-tax legal address and drugs like the Botox anti-wrinkle treatment.
Shares of Allergan rose 0.4 percent to $300.01 and Amgen gained 1.8 percent to $157.24 at 10:52 a.m. in New York.
To contact the reporters on this story: Simone Foxman in New York at sfoxman4@bloomberg.net; Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net; Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net Vincent Bielski, Ben Steverman
