Montreal-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is adding approximately $15 billion of debt to fund the acquisition of Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. We estimate adjusted leverage will increase to about 6.0x for 2015 and to 4.5x for 2016. We affirmed our 'BB-' corporate credit rating on the company. This transaction is consistent with our expectations for Valeant to intermittently increase leverage above 5x, as part of its aggressive acquisition-driven growth strategy. We are placing our senior secured issue-level ratings of 'BB' on CreditWatch with positive implications. This stems from our expectation that pro forma for the transaction secured debt will be a smaller proportion of the total debt and that about 95% of the company's EBITDA will be at guaranteeing entities (compared
