Forum Home Page [see Broadridge note belo

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The Shareholder Forumtm

independent review of issues relating to

Stock Buyback Policies

of

Walgreen Co.

for shareholder consideration in decisions about a

proposed merger into

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
   

 
     
 

 

For a printable copy of this report, click here.

Forum Report: Walgreen Stock Buybacks and Fair Investor Access

 

Proposing Walgreen Suspension of Buybacks to Restore Credit Rating

The Forum has been asked to report a shareholder suggestion that Walgreen suspend its announced $3 billion stock buyback program to restore the company’s recently downgraded credit rating,[1] and consider resuming buybacks only when the company can do so without another rating downgrade.

Informal discussions with a limited number of Forum participants have encouraged presenting this suggestion to the company for comment, and I will therefore ask them to include specific provisions for addressing this particular subject in their plan for responding to investor interests in Walgreen’s buyback policies.[2]

Please let me know if you have any comments on this suggestion, or on any other considerations relating to the buyback issues.

GL – November 20, 2014

Gary Lutin

Chairman, The Shareholder Forum

575 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022

Tel: 212-605-0335

Email: gl@shareholderforum.com

 

 

 
 

This program is open to all shareholders of Walgreen Co. (WAG) and to any fiduciaries or professionals concerned with their investment decisions. Participation is free of charge, according to the Shareholder Forum's standard Conditions of Participation.

The purpose of the program is to define issues relevant to long term shareholder interests in the proposed merger of Walgreen Co. into Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., and to support an impartial review and access to information required for investor consideration of the issues. As stated in the Conditions, all Forum participants are expected to make independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the privacy rights of other participants. Forum polices are intended to support anonymous communication, and provide that participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit permission.

Information requests and suggestions of issues that may be relevant to Darden shareholder interests can be addressed to the Shareholder Forum at wag@shareholderforum.com.

 

The information provided to Forum participants is intended for their private reference, and permission has not been granted for the republishing of any copyrighted material. The material presented on this web site is the responsibility of Gary Lutin, as chairman of the Shareholder Forum.

Shareholder Forum™ is a trademark owned by The Shareholder Forum, Inc., for the programs conducted since 1999 to support investor access to decision-making information. It should be noted that we have no responsibility for the services that Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., introduced for review in the Forum's 2010 "E-Meetings" program and has since been offering with the “Shareholder Forum” name, and we have asked Broadridge to use a different name that does not suggest our support or endorsement.