US pharmacy chain Walgreens, which owns a 45pc stake in Alliance Boots, is considering relocating to Europe for tax benefits.
A meeting was held in Paris last Friday to discuss Walgreens using Alliance Boot's holding company headquarters in Bern to legally change its tax domicile status. Such a move would significantly reduce Walgreen's tax bill. The shareholder group, which owns roughly 5pc of the company, included representatives from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and US hedge funds Jana Partners, Corvex and Och Ziff, people close to the situation said.
The move, known as an inversion, has already been successfully employed by US pharmaceutical companies acquiring Dublin-based rivals for the lower Irish corporate tax rate.
Last week Mallinckrodt acquired Questcor for $6.5bn for tax purposes, following in the footsteps of Perrigo’s $8.6bn acquisition of Elan and Actavis’ $5bn deal to buy Warner Chilcott, which reportedly lowered its corporate tax rate to 17pc.
A Walgreens spokesman said: "We regularly meet with our investors and always welcome their input. Over the past year, we have made significant progress in our strategic partnership with Alliance Boots as we move toward the window for exercising the second step of our transaction."
"Our focus is always on analyzing and doing what is in the best long-term interest of our company and its shareholders, and when we have something more definitive to announce about our future structure and strategies, we will do so."
Alliance Boots declined to comment. The company's UK headquarters are in Nottingham and would remain so even if an inversion took place.
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