=Walgreens Boot Alliance (WBA) reported earnings on Thur 5 Jan 2017 (b/o)

Walgreens Boot Alliance beats by $0.01, misses on revs; guides FY17 EPS in-line; in active talks with FTC regarding Rite Aid (RAD) acquisition :

• Reports Q1 (Nov) earnings of $1.10 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $1.09; revenues fell 1.8% year/year to $28.5 bln vs the $29.27 bln Capital IQ Consensus. 
  • Retail Pharmacy USA: Sales in comparable stores increased 1.1% compared with the same quarter a year ago. Pharmacy sales, which accounted for 69.1% of the division's sales in the quarter, increased 2.5% compared with the year-ago quarter. Comparable pharmacy sales increased 2.0%.
  • Pharmacy Int'l: On a constant currency basis, comparable store sales decreased 0.1% compared with the year-ago quarter. Comparable pharmacy sales decreased 0.5 % on a constant currency basis, primarily due to a reduction in government pharmacy funding in the UK, which was partially offset by growth in other international markets. Comparable retail sales increased 0.2% on a constant currency basis, reflecting growth in all countries except Chile and Mexico.
• Co issues in-line guidance for FY17, raises EPS to $4.90-5.20 from $4.85-5.20, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $5.00 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. 

Rite Aid Acquisition

• Walgreens Boots Alliance is actively engaged in discussions with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding its pending acquisition of Rite Aid Corporation, which was announced 27 October 2015. The company is working toward a close of the acquisition in the early part of this calendar year.
• As announced 20 December 2016, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Rite Aid have entered into an agreement to sell 865 Rite Aid stores and certain assets related to store operations to Fred's, Inc. for $950 million in an all-cash transaction. The divestiture transaction is subject to FTC approval, the approval and completion of the pending acquisition of Rite Aid by Walgreens Boots Alliance and other customary closing conditions. Taking into account the expected divestitures, Walgreens Boots Alliance continues to expect that the acquisition will be accretive to its adjusted diluted net earnings per share in the first full year after closing of the transaction. The company also continues to expect that it will realize synergies from the acquisition in excess of $1 billion, to be fully realized within three to four years of closing of the merger.