Shareholders have given the green light to Chemist Warehouse’s reverse takeover of Sigma Healthcare (ASX: SIG) to create a A$28 billion publicly-listed pharmacy giant.
Sigma said in an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) all Chemist Warehouse shareholders on Wednesday approved the merger under which Sigma would acquire all Chemist Warehouse shares in exchange for Sigma shares and $700 million cash.
Sigma said in another ASX announcement all resolutions put to an extraordinary general meeting of Sigma on Wednesday were passed.
It said Chemist Warehouse shareholders would receive their consideration on 6 February, the scheme of arrangement would be implemented on 12 February and new Sigma shares would start trading on 13 February if the scheme received court approval and other conditions were satisfied or waived in the meantime.
Shareholders in privately-owned Chemist Warehouse will own 86% of the merged entity through the scheme under which they receive 6.32 Sigma shares and 44c for each chemist Warehouse share they own.
Chemist Warehouse, which was established in 2000 and is well known for its yellow, blue and red store livery, operates 567 wholly or partly-owned pharmacies or stores in Australia, 50 in New Zealand, 10 in Ireland and China and one in Dubai.
The largest shareholders will be Chemist Co-Founder and Managing Director Mario Verrochi with shares currently valued at $7.7 billion, Co-founder and Chairman Jack Gance ($4.8 billion), Chief Financial Officer Samuel Gance ($4.3 billion) and Co-Founder and Director Damien Gance ($1.2 billion).
Another five Chemist Warehouse executives and shareholders will receive shares valued at between $108 million and $977 million each, based on the Sigma closing price of $3.03 on Wednesday.
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