WOONSOCKET – Shareholders of CVS Health Corp. and Aetna Inc. are voting Tuesday to approve the proposed merger between the retail pharmacy and benefits manager, and the health insurer at respective special meetings.
Both meetings are being conducted in in New York, thus avoiding the storm that is hitting most of New England, and the companies are expected to issue a statement when the votes are tallied. The separate, simultaneous meetings were to be held at 11 a.m. in New York City at the offices of Shearman & Sterling LLP, 599 Lexington Ave. (for CVS), and at the offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, 450 Lexington Ave. (for Aetna), for each to vote on the merger.
CVS Health expects to issue approximately 280 million shares of its common stock to Aetna shareholders in the merger. Based on the number of shares of CVS Health common stock outstanding as of Feb. 5, and the number of Aetna common shares outstanding as of Feb. 5, immediately following completion of the merger, CVS Health stockholders are expected to own approximately 78 percent of the outstanding shares of CVS Health common stock and former Aetna shareholders are expected to own approximately 22 percent of the outstanding shares of CVS Health common stock.
If the merger goes through – it still requires regulatory approval even if shareholders of both companies approve the deal – each Aetna shareholder will receive $145 in cash as well a 0.8378 of a share of CVS Health common stock.
Earlier this month, CVS completed the sale of bonds to help finance the deal, netting roughly $39.4 billion.
