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Rite Aid has rejected a takeover bid, but an acquisition may still be in its future.
The purchase offer came from private equity firm Spear Point Capital Management and was rejected April 11, as reported by the New York Post. According to Spear Point co-founder Ron Bienvenu, the company offered to buy Rite Aid for $815M.
Despite the initial rejection, Bienvenu is confident the buyout will happen, telling the Post, “This isn’t over. This is the beginning. There is real value there.”
Rite Aid’s financial struggles have been well-documented. An analyst earlier this month predicted the company’s stock will plunge down to $1 and warned the company may soon go under.
However, on news of the attempted buyout, shares for the company shot up Wednesday by as much as 38.5% and opened Thursday at $7.78 a share. Spear Point told the New York Post it would pay $14.60 each for Rite Aid shares outstanding.
Though the pandemic hastened the financial woes of the pharmacy chain, they began earlier. The chain has faced two failed merger attempts within the last five years, from Albertsons Cos. and Walgreens — one of which, a $10B acquisition attempt in 2017 by the Walgreens Boot Alliance, resulted in Walgreens purchasing half of all Rite Aid locations for $5.2B.
Meanwhile, Rite Aid’s portfolio is shrinking. As part of its Q4 fiscal report and 2023 fiscal outlook, the company told investors on April 14 that it plans to shutter an additional 82 stores, bringing its total planned closures up to 145.
Rite Aid’s top competitors, Walgreens and CVS, have also been closing locations over the past few years. CVS Health said in late 2021 that it would close 900 of its locations by 2025, though the company is doubling down on offering healthcare services in its remaining locations, shifting to a stronger emphasis on the retail clinic model.
Similarly, Walgreens told GlobeSt that it plans to shift away from the convenience store model, shrink its stores’ footprint and focus more on offering healthcare services.
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