Walgreens Boots Alliance sells shares of AmerisourceBergen for $1.85 billion

Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.
WBA,
-1.17%
on Thursday said it sold shares of drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp.
ABC,
-0.04%
for initial proceeds of $1.85 billion. Walgreens said it planned to use the proceeds it got from the deal largely to pay down debt and to handle general operations. The financial figure reflects a sale made “pursuant to prepaid variable share forward transactions” through a share offering for around $1.6 billion, and “depending on the stock price at the time, potentially additional proceeds at maturity,” set for fiscal 2026. The figure also reflects a share repurchase by AmerisourceBergen for proceeds of roughly $250 million. Walgreens said that such prepaid transactions “provide liquidity while maintaining ability to participate in potential stock price appreciation.” Shares of Walgreens were down 0.3% after hours. Shares of AmerisourceBergen were unchanged.