A federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey has approved the sale of pharmacy assets from more than … More
A federal bankruptcy court has approved the sale of pharmacy assets from more than 800 Rite Aid stores to CVS Health, Walgreens and grocery store chains including Kroger and Albertsons.
The pharmacy assets include 64 brick-and-mortar Rite Aid stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington that will be taken over by CVS, which also had a bid on the prescription files of 625 Rite Aid pharmacies across 15 states approved, CVS said Wednesday evening. The sale of remaining pharmacy assets that were also approved by the court are largely prescription files that will be purchased by rival drugstore chain Walgreens and grocers Albertsons, Kroger, and Giant Eagle. Walgreens confirmed it is purchasing prescription files in nine states.
The sale transactions were approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. The sales are still “subject to applicable regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions,” CVS said in a statement. “Additional details will be available closer to the transaction closing dates in the coming weeks.”
Sale prices have yet to be disclosed for any of Rite Aid’s pharmacy assets. It’s a going out of business sale of sorts for Rite Aid after the drugstore chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week for the second time in less than two years.
By buying the prescription files, CVS and Walgreens and others would avoid taking on more debt from brick-and-mortar stores. It’s common for pharmacy chains, other retailers and grocers in the pharmacy business to pursue prescription files and related pharmacy assets during Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
In 2019, for example, Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid were among the winning bidders for prescription files and related pharmacy assets auctioned off from 120 Shopko locations as part of the general merchandise retailer’s financial restructuring at that time.
Shopko was exiting the pharmacy business as part of a turnaround plan by the Green Bay, Wis.-based retailer. More than 20 bidders bid on the prescription files and other assets ended up buying Skopko customer prescription files during that process.
In Rite Aid’s case, the drugstore chain has buyers for “customer files at 810 of its stores, but failed to locate buyers for the files at 200 others,” Reuters reported Wednesday. As of Wednesday evening, the store locator on Rite Aid’s website listed more than 1,200 stores in 15 states..
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