Rexall Pharmaplus Drugstore sold for $ 3 Billion Dollars today !

[tjthemanto]

http://www.thestar.com/business/2016...3-billion.html

[tjthemanto]

With Shoppers Drug Mart already sold to Loblaws not that far back. Now Rexall is being bought by someone else. So both major and the largest drug stores are now owned by someone else.

Rexall sometimes has decent deals with Air Miles if you shop smartly and carefully over there. Sometimes their clearance sales are quite good . Overall they kind of kept SDM on their toes as far as cosmetics and drugs were concerned.

[Poirot]

Rexall in Red Deer is dead especially since they went pharmacy store pricing and don't follow the flyer.The clearance deals are terrible other stores regular price and sale prices was mostly cheaper than Rexall's clearance prices.Selection is poor.Even when I went to a couple of Edmonton Rexall they were dead.Lacombe Rexall I thought was better but they didn't even had the Dove Men's two pack soap that was on Air miles sale this week.I don't think the new owner will be an improvement.I haven't bought a thing at Rexall in Red Deer since they went pharmacy store pricing probably this new owner won't make me change my mind about not shopping there.

[walkonby]

Not sure if this has been posted yet?? Also not too sure what this means for Rexall remaining an AM Sponsor??


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rexa...over-1.3472220


$3B deal

Deal will consolidate Canada's 2nd-largest pharmacy chain into U.S. hands

By Pete Evans, CBC News Posted: Mar 02, 2016 9:09 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 02, 2016 5:07 PM ET

Canadian drug store chain Rexall is set to be bought by U.S. health-services company McKesson Corp. in a $3 billion deal.

The Edmonton-based chain of 470 pharmacies announced the deal, in a release on Wednesday, that will see the company move to the hands of San Francisco-based McKesson, but keep operating under the names Rexall and Pharmaplus in Canada.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2016, but will require numerous levels of regulatory and shareholder approval including the Competition Bureau and Industry Canada, which governs foreign takeovers under the Investment Canada Act since it is one that could potentially lessen competition in Canada.
The initial reaction from McKesson shareholders was a positive one, as the stock gained about two per cent to trade at $159.78 on the NYSE.





Industry consolidation




While far from a household name, McKesson has more than a century of history in Canada behind the scenes, providing medicine, health-care supplies and information technology to other companies in the health-care arena. In a release, the two companies said Rexall and McKesson have already been working together for 20 years.

Rexall is Canada's second-largest pharmacy chain with 470 locations across Canada, primarily focused on Western Canada. (CBC)

It's not even the first time the two companies have struck a deal for pharmacies. In 2012, the Katz Group, founded by Edmontonian Daryl Katz who currently controls the Rexall chain, sold 850 pharmacies that operate under IDA, Guardian Drugs and The Medicine Shoppe to another arm of McKesson's health-care conglomerate.
Wednesday's deal also comes in reaction to a 2013 move by rival Shoppers Drug Mart to join forces with grocery chain Loblaws to create the largest pharmacy chain in the country, with more than 1,300 locations from coast to coast to coast.
Doug Stephens, founder of Retail Prophet, said the deal makes "perfect sense" because it will allow Rexall to expand into food and health services to compete with Shoppers.
McKesson will "give them the strength that they need to compete with the Shoppers Drug Marts of the world," he said in an interview on CBC's The Exchange.
The U.S. chain also will lend Rexall "buying power, give it the infrastructure it needs to compete and help with that evolution toward a place where consumers go to be well, instead of just the old-time pharmacy where people go when they're sick. That is an important evolution for Rexall to make," Stephens said.
Retail analyst Bruce Winder said the low loonie likely helped the deal come to fruition.
"Canadian companies are going for a lot cheaper than they were even two years ago, which means that they have a greater chance in the return on investment by paying such a lower acquisition cost for the entity," said Winder, a partner and founder of Retail Advisors Network.