Boots’ parent company WBA last week (August 1) announced that it has sold “approximately $1.1 billion” in shares.
The company said that it sold “all remaining unencumbered shares” of American drug wholesale company Cencora.
Read more: Revealed: Boots planning up to 69 more store closures across UK
WBA added that the disposal had reduced its ownership of Cencora’s common stock from about 12% to about 10%.
It stressed that the sale had “no impact to the long-term partnership between the two companies”.
Strapped for cash?
WBA said that cash from the sale would “be used primarily for debt paydown”.
It added that proceeds will also be used to help the company “build out a more capital-efficient health services strategy rooted in its retail pharmacy footprint”.
Read more: Boots boss Seb James quits pharmacy giant amid ongoing closures
It will also fund “general corporate purposes”, WBA said.
Car Boots sale
In June, WBA’s filing with the US securities and exchange commission (SEC) revealed possible plans to close up to 69 more Boots stores as part of a years-long cost reduction plan.
But the Boots closures paled in comparison to the news that WBA plans to close up to a quarter of its pharmacies in the US over the next three years.
In June last year, Boots announced that it would close “300 pharmacies across the country over the next year”.
Read more: Boots pensions dispute: ‘Secret rule change documents’ discovered
Meanwhile, Boots UK’s managing director Seb James last month announced that he is leaving the company to join ophthalmology clinic group Veonet in November.
And the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) last month revealed that it will “step up” its dispute campaign against the multiple after discovering that Boots changed pension rules “on the day [a] buyout was announced”.
Last week, the PDA announced that Boots will pay its pharmacists and pharmacist store managers a £750 bonus this month for their work on delivering NHS services.
