Pharmacy business
Walgreens’ shareholders approve merger with Alliance Boots
Shareholders of the US pharmacy chain Walgreens have voted in favour of the company’s merger with Alliance Boots after a special meeting on 29 December 2014.
Some 97% of shareholders approved the merger and also the move to issue Walgreens Boots Alliance shares, which will trade under the ticker symbol WBA.
The vote comes nearly three weeks after Walgreens’ chief executive officer Greg Wasson announced he would retire some time after the crucial shareholder meeting and will not, as originally expected, head up the new company.
The merger, according to both companies, creates the “first global pharmacy-led health and wellbeing enterprise”.
Plans to merge the companies, expected to be formally completed by the beginning of 2015, were announced in September 2014.
The new company will be called Walgreens Boots Alliance and will have more than 11,000 pharmacies in 10 countries and will be the world’s largest wholesale and distribution network.
The new company, according to both organisations, will also be the world’s largest purchaser of prescription medicines.
Citation: The Pharmaceutical Journal DOI: 10.1211/PJ.2014.20067491
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