Walgreens sells $1.85 billion of AmerisourceBergen shares

Walgreens Boots Alliance continues to reduce its stake in AmerisourceBergen Corp.

The pharmacy giant said it has sold some shares of AmerisourceBergen Corp. for proceeds of approximately $1.85 billion. With the sale, Walgreens’ ownership of the drug distributor is down to about 16%.

Walgreens said it would use proceeds from the sale primarily for debt paydown and general corporate purposes. The company has been steadily reducing its stake in AmerisourceBergen. In December, it sold some AmerisourceBergen shares for $1 billion.

Walgreens has been spending billions of dollars as part of its push into primary health care. Last year, it invested $3.5 billion to support VillageMD’s acquisition of Summit Health.