Shares of Concordia International Corp. (TSX:CXR)(NASDAQ:CXR) are leading TSX stock gainers, buoyed by an update on the Oakville, Ontario-based company's strategy to develop long-term growth. Investors seem keen on hearing the new plan, although that didn't come today.
Rather, the PR from Concordia was more of a "We're-working-on-it, stay-tuned" announcement. "Once finalized, the Company intends to communicate its details with stakeholders in the second half of 2017," the company, which is focused on generic and legacy drugs, said in today's release.
Concordia's stock has been under constant pressure, with critics citing analyst downgrades, heavy debt burden, an underwhelming acquisition of Amdipharm Mercury Ltd in 2015, market share erosion of some products and an investigation by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority.
CXR supporters see value in new management to right the ship and events such as RedHill Biopharma (NASDAQ:RDHL) initiating promotion of Concordia's gastrointestinal specialty product Donnatal as positives for the company to turn things around.
While offering up typical cautionary verbiage to say that nothing may come of it, Concordia disclosed retaining Perella Weinberg Partners LP to assist in designing and executing a growth strategy, which could include exploring and evaluating "potential transactional alternatives."
Wall Street has gleaned optimism from Perella Weinberg entering the picture, pushing shares ahead about two hours into the session. After touching a low of $1.41 last Friday, shares are up 21.3% from the low though late-morning action on Wednesday, including a rise of 11.0% to $1.71 so far today.
