Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Chief Executive Officer Stefano Pessina revealed during a conference call with analysts on Thursday that company officials are moving forward with expansion plans including a possible buyout or joint venture.
The buyout option for the major drug retailing chain would include the acquisition of a company in the drug-distribution supply chain, Bloomberg reports.
"The complex structure of delivering the medicines to the patients will have to be rationalized, and as a consequence it's easy to believe we will have additional synergies coming from M&A activities," Pessina said, according to the site.
"We want to be -- as we have been in the past -- at the forefront of changes and so if these needs for consolidation will be confirmed, we will try to be part of it."
Walgreens officials are considering the acquisitions of the Express Scripts Holding Company and the Rite Aid Corporation. The former company's shares rose by almost 5.8 percent following news of the announcement.
In coming months, the company will make improvements to its organizational model and focus on lucrative investments, leading to the closure of less profitable retail stores.
"They're rationalizing their own store base, they're loving the deal they did with AmerisourceBergen and they're talking about enhancing the supply chain with M&A," Smead Capital Management official Tony Scherrer said, according to Bloomberg.
"If they're doing that, then perhaps a Rite Aid deal would be less likely than what people had been thinking."
Walgreens was founded in 1901 in Chicago.
