Latest news with #SycamorePartners
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
$10 Billion Exit: Walgreens Just Got Bought Out
Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) shareholders just signed off on a $10 billion buyout by Sycamore Partnersa move that will take the 123-year-old pharmacy giant private for the first time since 1927. Under the deal, shareholders will receive $11.45 per share, plus a potential kicker of up to $3 tied to future proceeds from Walgreens' VillageMD stake. The stock barely budged on the news, trading around $11.50right where it's hovered since the deal was announced back in March. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Signs with WBA. This comes as the entire retail pharmacy sector is under serious pressure. Reimbursement cuts, rising costs, and a consumer shift away from traditional pharmacies have forced companies like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid to radically rethink their footprints. Walgreens alone plans to shutter over 1,000 stores through 2027, after already closing about 1,000 since 2018. Rite Aid, meanwhile, just filed for bankruptcyagain. It's the second time in two years. Now, with Wall Street off its back, Walgreens could have more room to execute a painfulbut possibly necessaryturnaround. CEO Tim Wentworth says Sycamore's backing might help the company move faster on restructuring. Two years ago, shares were trading above $30. Today, investors are walking away with just over a third of thatunless the VillageMD kicker pans out. Whether this move proves to be a reset or just a retreat remains to be seen. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders approve transaction with Sycamore
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) announced that at the Company's Special Meeting of Shareholders, WBA shareholders approved the previously announced acquisition of the Company by entities affiliated with Sycamore Partners Management. According to the preliminary results, approximately 96% of votes cast at the Special Meeting by all shareholders were voted in favor of the merger agreement proposal. In addition, approximately 95% of the votes cast at the Special Meeting by unaffiliated shareholders were voted in favor of the merger agreement proposal. As previously announced on March 6, under the terms of the Merger Agreement, WBA shareholders will receive $11.45 per share in cash at closing, and one non-transferable Divested Asset Proceeds Right to receive up to an additional $3.00 in cash per share from the future monetization of WBA's debt and equity interests in VillageMD, which includes the Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD businesses. WBA expects to close the transaction in the third or fourth quarter of calendar year 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals. Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See today's best-performing stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on WBA: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Walgreen Boots put volume heavy and directionally bearish Walgreens Boots Alliance Merger: Uncertainty Looms Over DAP Rights Valuation Morning News Wrap-Up: Thursday's Biggest Stock Market Stories! Shell denies deal talks with BP, Micron reports Q3 beat: Morning Buzz Morning Movers: Shell ticks higher after denying interest in BP deal Sign in to access your portfolio
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Walgreens Shareholders Approve $10 Billion Sycamore Partners Deal
Walgreens WBA -0.34%decrease; red down pointing triangle Boots Alliance shareholders voted in favor of Sycamore Partners' nearly $10 billion acquisition at a special meeting. The deal, announced on March 6, would allow the New York private-equity firm to take Walgreens private. The drug-store chain expects the transaction to close in the third or fourth quarter of 2025.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Walgreens shareholders approve $10 billion private equity buyout
Shareholders of Walgreens Boots Alliance overwhelmingly approved the drugstore chain's $10 billion acquisition by private equity firm Sycamore. It is a rough era for national pharmacy chains like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid, closing hundreds of stores due to changing consumer behavior, declining pharmacy reimbursements and rising costs. Walgreens will close more than 1,000 stores through 2027 and Rite-Aid filed for bankruptcy protection in May, it's second trip to bankruptcy court in as many years. Walgreens shareholders will receive $11.45 per share from Sycamore Partners per the terms of the deal first announced in March, the companies said Friday. They could also receive as much as an additional $3 per share from the future monetization of Walgreens' debt and equity interests in its VillageMD clinic business. The buyout, which will take the drugstore chain private, will give it more flexibility to make changes to improve its business without worrying about Wall Street's reaction. Walgreens was founded in 1901 and has been a public company since 1927. 'With Sycamore's partnership, we will be better positioned to accelerate our turnaround strategy,' said Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth. Walgreens shares were largely unchanged by Friday's news, hovering around $11.50, as they have since the deal was announced. Just two years ago, they were worth more than $30 each. Last fall, the company announced a plan to close 1,200 of its roughly 8,500 U.S. locations. The company, based just north of Chicago in Deerfield, Illinois, had already shed about a thousand U.S. stores since it grew to nearly 9,500 after buying some Rite Aid locations in 2018.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Walgreens Shareholders Approve $10 Billion Private Equity Buyout
Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders Friday approved private equity firm Sycamore Partners' $10 ... More billion buyout offer for the iconic drugstore chain, the company said July 11, 2025. In this April 20218 photo, a business sign hangs over the entrance to a Walgreens pharmacy and store in Alexandria, Virginia. (Photo by) Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders Friday approved private equity firm Sycamore Partners' $10 billion buyout offer for the iconic drugstore chain. First announced in March, the deal approved by shareholders calls for the private equity firm is Sycamore Partners to pay $11.45 per share — 29% above the December stock price for Walgreens. Sycamore also agreed to 'one non-transferable right" to receive up to $3 in cash per Walgreens share 'from the future monetization of WBA's debt and equity interests in VillageMD, which includes the Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD businesses,' the companies said of Walgreens' primary care businesses. About 96% of votes cast were in favor of the merger agreement proposal, according to a preliminary tally released Friday morning at a special meeting of shareholders. 'We appreciate the consideration and overwhelming support from our shareholders in our value-maximizing transaction with Sycamore,' Tim Wentworth, Chief Executive Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance said after the shareholders vote was disclosed. 'With Sycamore's partnership, we will be better positioned to accelerate our turnaround strategy, further enhance the customer, patient and team member experience and become the first choice for pharmacy, retail and health services. We look forward to closing the transaction and entering this next chapter.' Walgreens still expects to close the transaction in the third or fourth quarter of this year, 'subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals,' the company said Friday. The deal, rumored for months, comes after Walgreens, which had a market value of more than $100 billion a decade ago, undertook a failed in-store clinic rollout that led it to close hundreds of stores to reduce debt and stem financial losses. Under former chief executive Roz Brewer, Walgreens spent billions of dollars investing in and operating physician-staffed clinic operator VillageMD. Walgreens invested more than $6 billion in VillageMD under Brewer to take a controlling stake, but the company has already scaled back dramatically on the expansion of doctor practices and clinics the company opened. In 2020, Walgreens said it planned to open 500 to 700 'Village Medical at Walgreens' physician-led primary care clinics in more than 30 U.S. markets over five years, with the 'intent to build hundreds more thereafter.' But Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth, who replaced Brewer in October 2023, said a year ago that the company and its partner VillageMD had slowed the number of clinic openings in part because the operators haven't been able to fill their 'patient panels,' which are a certain number of individual patients under the care of a specific provider. The billions of dollars in losses on the VillageMD investment was largely to blame for a net loss of more than $8 billion for the company's fiscal 2024.
