Wells Fargo analyst David Maris, who has maintained an Underperform rating on Valeant since initiating coverage of the stock on February 19 of this year, expressed his view in a new note to investors that selling Bausch & Lomb will not bring what some may expect to Valeant if the company were to pursue a sale of the unit as it explores options to pay down debt. It seems like B&L may not have grown during Valeant's ownership and appears to be worth less now than the $8.7B Valeant paid for it in 2013, Maris tells investors. As support for his view, Maris notes that Valeant reported in June that B&L plus skin care and other OTC assets have trailing twelve month sales of $3.5B, compared to B&L's 2012 standalone sales of $3.04B. To get to a value of $20B, an acquirer would need to be willing to pay more than 14.5x for the combination of B&L, skin care, and other OTC assets, which are growing at only 4%, and Maris is "not certain such a buyer exists."