Morning NewsShop Apotheke enters into an alliance with Galenica in Switzerland
The Switzerland-based Galenica (+0.7%) enters into a strategic partnership with the Dutch Shop Apotheke for the Swiss market. Only recently Zur Rose (+3.8%), a Swiss competitor of Shop Apotheke, decided to withdraw from the domestic market. Shop Apotheke rose by 7.7 per cent, despite a capital increase. According to the company, the increase was company-specific and only served to allow Switzerland's Galenica AG to enter Shop Apotheke. There is also no rights trading, which often weighs on share prices. The business activities of Galenica's specialty pharmacy Mediservice and the online pharmacy shop-apotheke.ch will be combined in a joint venture. This will create the "leading online pharmacy in Switzerland", according to a press release on Thursday. The two partners complement each other well. While Mediservice focuses primarily on the shipment of prescription medicines, Europe's largest mail-order pharmacy focuses on OTC and health products as well as cosmetics. If everything runs according to plan and the competition authorities approve the transaction without objection, the deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. In detail, the agreement provides for Galenica to sell 51 per cent of the shares in Mediservice to Shop Apotheke and to make an additional cash payment of 29 million euros. In return, Galenica will receive an 8 per cent stake in Shop Apotheke, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, as part of a capital increase.