Grocery store company purchasing Rite Aid

The owner of Safeway, Vons and other supermarkets is taking over the nation's thirdlargest drugstore chain.

The privately held owner of Safeway, Vons and other grocery brands is plunging deeper into the pharmacy business with a deal to buy Rite Aid, the nation’s thirdlargest drugstore chain.

Albertsons Cos. is offering either a share of its stock and $1.83 in cash or slightly more than a share for every 10 shares of Rite Aid. A deal value was not disclosed in a statement released Tuesday by the companies.

Rite Aid has numerous stores in the Mid-Hudson Valley, including in Kingston, Saugerties, Stone Ridge, New Paltz, Catskill Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie.

Shareholders of Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons will own more than 70 percent of the combined company, which is expected

to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The companies said the deal should close in the second half of this year, but regulators and Rite Aid shareholders still have to approve it.

Rite Aid Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Standley will lead the combined company as CEO, while Albertsons leader Bob Miller will serve as chairman.

The companies said they will keep headquarters in both Boise and Camp Hill, Pa., which is where Rite Aid is based.

Albertsons said it will continue to run Rite Aid stand-alone stores, and most of the grocery operator’s pharmacies will be rebranded as Rite Aid.

Albertsons also runs Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Acme stores.

Rite Aid Corp. said earlier this year that it runs about 4,400 stores. Larger rival Walgreens, which also has a Mid-Hudson presence, tried unsuccessfully to buy the chain, but the company scuttled that push last year after encountering regulatory resistance.