Walgreens to Acquire 1,932 Rite Aid Stores

Walgreens

It appears to be yet another big day for the retail sector. On Tuesday, September 19, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:$WBA) announced that United States antitrust regulators have given the green light for a slimmed-down deal for the drugstore chain to buy roughly 42% of Rite Aid Corp’s (NYSE:$RAD) U.S. stores for $4.38 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Walgreens will acquire 1,932 Rite Aid stores, which is 254 fewer that it announced in July. For those who don’t know, Walgreens first offered to buy all of Rite Aid’s 4,600 stores in October of 2015, but the company failed to win approval for that $9.4 billion deal and was forced to restructure it.

Further, under the deal, Rite Aid has the option of joining Walgreen’s group purchasing agreement to discuss discounts on generic drug prices. Walgreens has also stated that it will purchase Rite Aid’s three distribution centers located in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Connecticut.

It is worth mentioning that Walgreens does not believe the deal will have a significant impact on its adjusted earnings for the fiscal year ending on August 31 of next year. Store purchases will commence in October and are forecast to be finalized in spring of 2018.

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