Alliance Boots GmbH, the European pharmacy retailer and wholesaler owned in part by Walgreen Co., said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire some 1,400 drugstores in Mexico and Chile, marking its first major move into Latin America.
Alliance said it hopes to complete its all-cash purchase of the retail pharmacy division of the Mexican company Grupo Casa Saba by the middle of the third quarter. Casa Saba said the deal is worth $637.5 million.
Casa Saba owns the majority controlling interest of Chilean-based Farmacias Ahumada S.A., also known as FASA, whose holdings comprise two primary businesses: Farmacias Benavides, the third-largest drugstore chain in Mexico with about 1,000 stores; and a group of some 400 stores in Chile that operate under the corporate banner.
Together, the two chains have combined annual revenue of about $1.4 billion.
The acquisition would give the combined Walgreen-Boots enterprise a foothold in Latin America.
Walgreen bought 45 percent of Alliance Boots, which runs Europe’s largest pharmacy chain, in 2012, with an option to buy the rest in 2015. Walgreen executives have said the company intends to complete the transaction as scheduled in a six-month window that opens in February.
In a statement, Walgreen said the deal “is another step toward the vision Walgreens and Alliance Boots outlined together, in June 2012, when we launched our strategic partnership to establish the first global, pharmacy-led health and wellbeing enterprise.”
The company declined to comment beyond the statement.
Walgreen had a Mexican presence for nearly 40 years, but in 1984 sold its stake of the small Mexican drugstore chain Sanborns.
Walgreen invested in the 26-store chain in 1946 and eventually built a 44 percent interest in the chain.
pfrost@tribune.com
