Chicago
Walgreens swallows health firm: Village Practice Management, a unit of US drugstore giant Walgreens Boots Alliance that trades as VillageMD, has agreed to combine with Summit Health in a deal worth $8.9bn including debt, says Laura Cooper in The Wall Street Journal. CityMD-owned Summit Health runs medical practices and walk-in centres, mainly in the northeastern states. Health insurer Cigna will become a minority owner in the merged entity via its Evernorth unit, with Walgreens taking a 53% stake.
It’s a fast-growing sector and Walgreens will be hoping the deal will provide “a much needed salve for its own aches and pains”, says Lex in the Financial Times. Not that the transaction is straightforward. Walgreens had hoped to fund its push into healthcare services with the proceeds from the sale of its struggling Boots chain in Britain, before shelving that idea in the summer. Under the terms of the deal, Walgreens is investing $3.5bn in equity and debt, but it is paying the equivalent of 19 times Summit Health’s
