Farmexpert, the second largest pharmaceutical distributor in Romania, will become part of the portfolio of American group Walgreens, which announced the takeover of Swiss based Alliance Boots, the owner of the Romanian company.  Farmexpert has yearly sales of some EUR 500 million.

Walgreens will pay GBP 6 billion for the 55% stake it doesn’t yet own in Alliance Boots, after the acquisition of the 45% in the company back in 2012. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2015. Walgreens is the largest drug store chain in the U.S.  The new Walgreens Boots Alliance will become the largest pharmacy network in the world, with 11,000 units in ten countries.

The transaction is subject to shareholder and various regulatory approvals, and would fully combine the two companies into the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise.

Farmexpert was founded by Romanian businessman Eugen Baciu, who sold it to German group ANZAG, which was then taken over by Alliance Boots.

By investing in Alliance Boots, Walgreen wants to gain purchasing power with generic-drug manufacturers and save some USD 1 billion by cost reduction until 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Walgreen and Alliance Boots made more than USD 100 billion in revenue in 2011.

editor@romania-insider.com