Walgreens sells some AmerisourceBergen shares for $694 million

(Reuters) – Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:), one of the largest U.S. pharmacies, said on Thursday it has sold some of its shares in drug distributor AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:) Corp for $694 million and will primarily use the proceeds to pay down debt.

AmerisourceBergen will repurchase about $50 million of its common stock from Walgreens in this transaction, the U.S. drugstore chain said, adding that its ownership of AmerisourceBergen’s common stock would remain at 17%.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company sold AmerisourceBergen shares for $1 billion last December, cutting its ownership from 20%.

The share sale has no impact on the long-term partnership between the two companies, Walgreens said.