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Walgreens Boots Alliance will sell its pharmaceutical wholesale business to AmerisourceBergen in a $ 6.5 billion cash and stock transaction.
Pharmaceutical wholesalers essentially act as middlemen, purchasing drugs from manufacturers and then distributing them to customers such as drugstore chains, hospitals and medical practices.
Walgreens said Wednesday the deal would allow it to focus more on expanding its core retail pharmacy business which, like others, has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drugstore chains and other retailers have been hit hard, especially last spring when the pandemic forced shoppers to stay in their homes and away from their stores.
Walgreens estimated in October that the pandemic reduced its operating profit by around $ 520 million in the last quarter of fiscal 2020. But the drugstore chain has also increased its sales and prescriptions in the United States and has has seen some improvement through its Boots stores in the UK.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., headquartered in Deerfield, Ill., Operates more than 21,000 stores, primarily in the US and UK. Pharmacies are at the center of its business, unlike CVS Health Corp., which also operates large insurance and pharmacy benefit management companies.
AmerisourceBergen will pay nearly $ 6.3 billion in cash and 2 million common shares for Walgreens’ Alliance Healthcare business in a deal the companies plan to close by September. Walgreens already owns a nearly 30% stake in AmerisourceBergen.
Alliance Healthcare supplies more than 115,000 pharmacies, doctors and health centers in Europe and Egypt.
The companies also announced on Wednesday that they would extend their three-year U.S. distribution agreement until 2029.
Walgreens said in November that it was combining its wholesale business in Germany with McKesson Corp., and that it would control 70% of that business. A Walgreens spokesperson said on Wednesday that the McKesson joint venture was not part of the Amerisource deal.
Shares of AmerisourceBergen Corp., based in Chesterbrook, Pa., Jumped more than 8% to $ 105.78 on Wednesday afternoon. Shares of Walgreens rose more than 4% to $ 43.10. Both eclipsed the more than 1% increase over the Dow Jones industrial average, of which Walgreens is a component.
Walgreens will release its first fiscal quarter results on Thursday.
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