A net profit of 327 million euros, up 15%, which leads to the distribution of 126 million in dividends and pushes retained earnings beyond the threshold of 7 billion. It is the 2017 budget of Alliance Sante' Participations, the Luxembourg safe of Stefano Pessina and Ornella Barra which holds 14,5% of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the world's number one pharmaceutical distribution company. As emerges from the documentation filed in the Grand Duchy, Alliance ended last year with assets of 7,3 billion, down from 7,6 billion in 2016.
The year - indicates the annual report without giving further details - records value adjustments of 269 million euros in 'companies in which the company' has a shareholding', while the value of 'securities' remains unchanged at 7,27 billion which have a fixed character. Profits carried forward, after deducting the 126 million distributed as dividends, rise from 6,83 billion to 7,03 billion. On the other hand, the 77 financial statements of NewCip, the parent company of Alliance, also domiciled in Luxembourg, closed with a loss of 2017 thousand euros, which in 2016 had recorded a profit of 116 thousand euros. At the end of the year, however, the leading holding company of the group could in turn count on retained earnings of over 600 million euros. Assets fell to 1,7 billion from 2,2 billion, after the reduction of loans 'to associated companies' from 582 million to 82,5 million.
On the boards of both companies are Stefano Pessina, 'engineer' and Ornella Barra, 'pharmacist', both residing in the Principality of Monaco, as directors, while the presidency of the board is held by the Luxembourg lawyer Simone Retter. Pessina, born in 1941, born in Pescara and graduated from the Milan Polytechnic, and Ornella Barra, 64, a native of Chiavari, have created, acquisition after acquisition, a group of global dimensions, of which Pessina is CEO and executive vice-president and his partner and partner chief operating officer.
In Forbes ranking, Pessina, credited with assets of 10,6 billion dollars, is al 127th place in the world among billionaires and third in Italy. Barra regularly features in the list of the most influential women in the world and in 2017 she was the only Italian on the list. Walgreens is the largest global company for the distribution of drugs and wellness products, controls a chain of 13.200 pharmacies in 11 countries and as a wholesaler has 390 distribution centers supplying 230.000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals in 20 countries .
Ha 385 thousand employees and in 2017 it had a turnover of 118 billion dollars, with profits of 4,1 billion. In the third quarter of 2018 (to last May), the net profit rose to 1,3 billion (+15,5%) and turnover to 34,3 billion (+14%). The group, listed on the Nasdaq, has a market capitalization of around 61 billion dollars, after having recorded a drop in prices of 22% in the last 12 months. Yesterday, the stock closed at $60,765 (-0,6%). The high of the last year was 83,89 dollars and the low was 59,07.
