Walgreens to close about 200 stores in United States

[August 07, 2019]  (Reuters) - Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc <WBA.O> said on Tuesday it plans to close about 200 U.S. stores and expects to record related pre-tax charges of between $1.9 billion and $2.4 billion.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company in June said it would close about 200 stores in the United Kingdom as performance in its UK Boots business continued to lag in the latest reported quarter.

The store closures are part of the company's cost management program that is aimed at mitigating the pressure related to generic drug prices, the company had said in June.

The program is expected to deliver annual cost savings in excess of $1.5 billion by 2022, the company said in a regulatory filing https://bit.ly/2YJYG6U on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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