Sequoia Fund sold 1.5 million Valeant shares: WSJ

(Reuters) – Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc’s VRX.N largest stakeholder, Sequoia Fund, said it sold about 1.5 million shares of the company’s stock last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Ruane, Cunniff Goldfarb Inc, which runs Sequoia, told the Journal that the Valeant shares were sold to reduce investor taxes by booking capital losses.

The shares were bought in October, Ruane, Cunniff Goldfarb’s executive vice president, David Poppe, told the Journal.

In January, Ruane, Cunniff Goldfarb, long known for its ties to Warren Buffett, was sued by shareholders who claimed it recklessly took a huge stake in the embattled drug company Valeant, causing more than $2 billion in losses.

Valeant, a target of a securities investigation and under scrutiny for its pricing and accounting practices, said on Monday that its longtime chief executive officer was leaving just three weeks after returning from a medical leave.

Ruane, Cunniff could not immediately be reached outside of regular business hours.

(Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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