Chemist Warehouse’s ASX debut creates millionaire franchisees

Chemist Warehouse franchisees have catapulted into millionaire status after cashing in hundreds of millions of dollars in shares as the pharmacy juggernaut made its long-awaited ASX debut on Thursday under the Sigma Healthcare banner.

Barely two weeks after Sigma shareholders approved Chemist Warehouse’s reverse takeover, the newly merged group began trading as Sigma on Thursday with a valuation of nearly $32 billion.

The stock leapt as high as 9 per cent to $3.01 before retreating to $2.98 as at 10.55am, with more than $400 million of shares traded.

The selling has been attributed to nearly 200 Chemist Warehouse franchisees who emerged with 4.3 billion shares, or 37 per cent of Sigma, as part of the merger.

Co-founders Mario Verrocchi and brothers Sam and Jack Gance can’t trade shares from their combined 48.4 per cent holding until September.

The Gances started with a single pharmacy in Reservoir in Melbourne in 1972, with Mr Verrocchi joining them eight years later. The trio and other like-minded entrepreneurial pharmacists began what became Chemist Warehouse by co-ordinating buying activities for their mutual benefit.

Chemist Warehouse was officially launched in 2000, the same year it opened its first stores outside Victoria in South Australia and NSW.

It now has more than 640 stores.

The combined Sigma group boasts 880 Australian franchised pharmacies across the Chemist Warehouse, My Chemist, Amcal and Discount Drug Store brands. It also partly owns 50 retail pharmacies in New Zealand, 10 in Ireland and two in Dubai.

More to come