Amid Investor And Political Pressure, Walgreen Faces Domicile Decision

Walgreen Co. (WAG), closing in on key deadlines in its three-year plan to acquire European drugstore giant Alliance Boots, said an inversion remains on the table that would relocate the iconic brand from the U.S. to take advantage of a loophole that allows them to avoid higher corporate taxes here.

Walgreen chief executive officer Greg Wasson said he plans to disclose the company’s plans by the end of July or early August as part of the company’s major restructuring in the alliance with its European partner. Announced in 2012, Walgreen has been on a three-year journey to acquire Alliance Boots and become the largest pharmacy-led health care business in the world.

“We are looking at all and everything,” Wasson told analysts and investors this morning on Walgreen’s fiscal third quarter earnings call, which lasted more than an hour. “That’s complex stuff as we look through this.”

Among the things Wasson and his management team are looking at is “what our tax structure will be” as well as the combined entity’s cost structure, balance sheet and certain management.

Already, other global brands based in the U.S. such as Pfizer (PFE) and   Medtronic (MDT) have attempted an inversion or are working toward one. And Abbvie (ABBV), the drug company spinoff of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is attempting to buy Dublin-based Shire in what many observers believe is partly driven by the loophole.

But among the pressures Walgreen may be considering is from its home state U.S. Senator, Dick Durbin. The Illinois Democrat and No. 2 leader in the U.S. Senate and close ally of President Obama floated a bill this week he called the Patriot Employer Tax Credit Act that would offer a tax credit of approximately $1,200 per employee to corporations that kept their headquarters in the U.S.

Both Walgreens and Abbvie are major employers along the Tri-State Tollway leading north from Chicago.

Meanwhile, analysts pushed Walgreen for answers on how it would be improving its cost structure and raising revenue going forward amid global pressure on pharmaceutical prices.

Walgreen said third-quarter profits rose nearly 16 percent to $722 million, or 75 cents a share in the period ending May 31. That compares to $624 million, or 65 cents a share, in the company’s fiscal 2013 quarter.

Third quarter sales jumped 5.9 percent to $19.4 billion.

Wasson said the company continues to see “improving top-line growth” but is “experiencing increased pressure on pharmacy gross profit margins. We will be accelerating our optimization efforts, including taking additional steps to lower expenses companywide.”

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