Walgreens Sells AmerisourceBergen Shares To Raise $1 Billion For Primary Care Expansion

Walgreens Boots Alliance has sold shares of AmerisourceBergen for proceeds of $1 billion, which will be used to help fund Walgreens-backed VillageMD’s acquisition of Summit Health.

Walgreens Thursday night said its stock ownership stake in AmerisourceBergen, a large drug distributor, has now “decreased from approximately 20 percent to approximately 17 percent.”

Proceeds of the stock sale will be used “primarily for debt paydown and the funding of the company’s strategic priorities, including the definitive agreement for VillageMD to acquire Summit Health-CityMD.”

Last month, Walgreens-backed doctor-staffed clinic operator VillageMD announced plans to buy Summit Health for $8.9 billion to expand doctor-staffed clinics across the country. The transaction includes investments from Walgreens Boots Alliance, which already owns more than 60% of VillageMD, and Cigna’s health services business Evernorth.

Primary care provider Summit Health merged with CityMD in 2019 to create a company with more than 1,400 healthcare providers that offer primary, specialty and urgent care.

Terms of VillageMD’s Summit deal call for Walgreens to “invest $3.5 billion through an even mix of debt and equity to support the acquisition of Summit Health-CityMD,” Walgreens said last month. “Walgreens Boots Alliance will remain the largest and consolidating shareholder of VillageMD with approximately 53 percent ownership.”