U.S. retailer Walgreen Co won't use a full takeover of Europe's biggest pharmacy chain Alliance Boots to move its domicile overseas, it said on Wednesday, following fierce criticism of such tax-cutting deals at home.Walgreen said it would exercise an option to purchase the 55 percent it does not already own of Alliance Boots for 3.13 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) in cash and 144.3 million shares, giving a total value for the deal of about $15 billion. It took a 45 percent stake in 2012 and was expected to buy the rest.The U.S. group added the combined company, with more than 11,000 stores in 10 countries, would keep its tax domicile in the United States, with headquarters in the Chicago area. It is targeting combined revenue for 2016 of $126-130 billion.Walgreen's retreat is the third major possible tax "inversion" deal to collapse in recent months amid heightened political sensitivity in the United States to such transactions.
Walgreen Co. (Walgreens), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a retail drugstore chain in the United States. Shares of WAG fell by 4.15% or $-2.99/share to $69.12. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $46.75 and as high as $76.39. On average, 5984720 shares of WAG exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 32578600.
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