Diplomat Pharmacy Shares Tumble on UnitedHealth Takeunder

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Diplomat Pharmacy Inc. (DPLO) tumbled more than 30% in premarket trading Monday after the provider of specialty pharmacy and infusion services agreed to be acquired by UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) for about $303 million, or $4.00 a share, in cash.

The purchase price represents a roughly 31.2% discount to Friday's closing price of $5.81 for Diplomat.

The Flint, Mich., company, which will be merged into UnitedHealth's OptumRx pharmacy-care-services, said its board "carefully considered a variety of strategic options and concluded that joining OptumRx is in the best interests of our shareholders, employees and the clients and patients we serve."

Diplomat said its co-founder and chairman emeritus, Philip Hagerman, along with certain affiliates, have agreed to tender their roughly 23% stake in the company to UnitedHealth in the deal, which is expected to close in early 2020.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2019 07:18 ET (12:18 GMT)

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