GoodRx To Acquire RxSaver In $50 Million Deal

GoodRx, RxSaver, Ronald Perelman, Vericast, acquisition

Discount drug broker GoodRx is acquiring its competitor RxSaver, which is owned by marketing firm Vericast, in a $50 million deal, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

Controlled by billionaire investor Ronald Perelman, who also controls Vericast, RxSaver was sold off to GoodRx last month, investors were told on a private call on Thursday (May 13), the sources told Bloomberg. 

Vericast’s investor call also reported a 6 percent decline in its first-quarter revenue to $646.5 million from $691 million the prior year.  

RxSaver allows users to comparison-shop for the best drug prices and to claim savings through bar codes and coupons. The company earns a transaction fee on sales, which is part of the base price.

Digital coupon firm RetailMeNot, previously owned by Vericast, acquired RxSaver three years ago as part of its plan to move into healthcare services. Backed by MacAndrews & Forbes, Vericast used the money from its RetailMeNot sale to pay down loans and buy back roughly $336 million of bonds, Bloomberg previously reported.

Vericast currently has debt totaling some $2.7 billion and about $60 million in cash, according to sources. It’s unknown how Vericast will use the proceeds from the sale. The company has been floating the idea of a deal with GoodRx for several months.

Vericast had been planning a $1.8 billion bond sale in March, but plans evaporated over terms. Creditors had been pushing for RxSaver to be transferred to a subsidiary as part of the debt deal, per the report.

Bond trading data from Trace showed that Vericast’s 8.375 percent first-lien notes come due next year, trading at about 101 cents on the dollar. Its term loan is quoted at around 93 cents, according to Bloomberg data.

GoodRx filed an initial public offering (IPO) at $33 per share and started trading on Sept. 23, 2020. Shares escalated 53 percent on the first day. The firm turned a $55 million profit in the first half of last year, up from $31 million. Revenue was up about 48 percent to $257 million.

The discount prescription space has been heating up in recent years as insured consumers started shouldering more healthcare costs with higher deductibles.


Standard Chartered Participates in Joint Venture to Issue Hong Kong Dollar-Backed Stablecoin

Standard Chartered, stablecoins, Hong Kong

Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong (SCBHK), Animoca Brands and HKT have agreed to form a joint venture to issue a stablecoin backed by the Hong Kong dollar.

The new joint venture intends to apply for a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) under a new regulatory regime, subject to the passage of the Stablecoins Bill, the companies said in a Monday (Feb. 17) press release.

Hong Kong’s stablecoin bill is under review and, if enacted, will require stablecoin issuers to obtain an HKMA license and comply with reserve and price stability requirements, Cointelegraph reported Monday.

The joint venture will benefit from Standard Chartered’s bank-grade infrastructure, rigorous governance and experience working with stablecoin issuers globally; Animoca Brands’ expertise and extensive network in the Web3 space; and HKT’s mobile wallet expertise, according to the companies’ press release.

The three companies have been working together in an HKMA stablecoin issuer sandbox that was launched in July to explore how stablecoins can play a role in the development of financial markets and payments, per the release.

Their joint venture’s Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin will be designed to enhance both domestic and cross-border payments and to serve both consumers and merchants, the release said.

“By leveraging the bank’s and our partners’ core strengths, we aim to launch a stablecoin that can be used securely by institutions and individuals across a wide range of use cases,” Mary Huen, CEO, Hong Kong and Greater China & North Asia, Standard Chartered, said in the release. “We are dedicated to staying at the forefront in driving FinTech innovation alongside the regulators, partners and clients, further consolidating the role of Hong Kong as an international finance center.”

In another, separate effort, Standard Chartered was among the firms that participated in a pilot project called the Canton Network that explored the potential of a privacy-enabled open blockchain network allowing for real-time settlement and immediate reconciliation across counterparty systems.

In September, the HKMA said that its second phase of testing had begun for its e-HKD Pilot, where 11 groups of firms are exploring tokenized assets, programmability and offline payments.