Valeant amends credit facility for second time in six months

(Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (NYSE: VRX) (NYSE: VRX) said its lenders had approved an amendment to its credit facility, giving the drugmaker more flexibility to sell assets and repay loans by taking on other debt.

The embattled drugmaker, which is amending its credit agreement for the second time in six months, agreed to increase the interest on the facility by 0.50 percent, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The company's shares were up 5.3 percent at $31.58 in premarket trading.

Valeant, whose long-term debt stood at about $31 billion as of June 30, had asked lenders in March to amend its credit agreement to give it more time to file its financials.

Reuters reported last week that Valeant offered to pay lenders higher rates to win approval for an amendment.

The drugmaker has been working to restore investor trust after a year of bad news and said last week that it would sell billions of dollars of non-core assets and could accept offers for its main businesses.

Last fall, political concerns about Valeant's sharp drug price increases and investor scrutiny of its dealings with pharmacy Philidor RX sent Valeant's shares plunging.

Congress and several U.S. government agencies also opened investigations and the company restated earnings earlier this year.

(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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