KATZ SELLS PART OF EMPIRE FOR COOL $920M
By Wanye
12 years ago
The small remaining fraction of folks who whisper of Oilers owner Daryl "Kay-Z" Katz having less money than one would believe can eat a triple helping of shut up pie. Pictured above in an imaginary press conference with his namesake rapper Jay-Z, He who was already rich is now REALLY REALLY REALLY rich.
The man who signs the cheques Chez Oilers and is often chastised for not talking to the media about the Oilers current (insert woe here) problems reminds us all what he is doing with his days instead. And that seems to be making boatloads of cash.
Oilers owner Daryl Katz has sold a big chunk of his privately owned pharmacy business to U.S. giant McKesson Corp. for $920 million.
In a deal announced late Monday, McKesson said it signed a purchase agreement for Drug Trading Company Limited, the independent banner business of the Katz Group Canada Inc., and Medicine Shoppe Canada Inc., the drugstore chain’s franchise network.
MONEY AIN’T A THING
That is a lot of smoke. Suddenly one understands the finances required to calmly sit through the Horcoff contract, sign Khabibulin’s pay cheques without batting an eye and watch the team languish in 30th place year after year after year without feeling the need to fire those in charge.
Suddenly the next time someone exclaims "dang that Tom Gilbert is a rich mamma jamma" you can roll your eyes and say "that ain’t even not no kind of money. You should see the guy that signs his cheques!"*
As Chris Rock once roughly said "there is a difference between being wealthy and being rich. Shaquille O’neal made over 20 million dollars last year. He’s rich. But somewhere there is a guy that writes his cheques and says ‘here you go Shaq! Go buy a bouncing truck!" That guy is wealthy."
RARE GLIMPSE ON KATZ CO.
This transaction provides a look at the state of Katz’ companies rarely seen by any of us common rabble building stick huts outside his walls:
"Katz Group’s Rexall stores are not part of the deal. Katz plans to expand the Rexall chain by incorporating the 18-store Dell Pharmacies chain in southern Ontario. In a separate deal, Katz Group announced the purchase of the Dell chain Monday for $70 million (Cdn).
Katz’s Drug Trading firm is the marketing and purchasing arm for a network of more than 850 independently owned pharmacies across Canada, the majority of which operate under the I.D.A. and Guardian brands."
It also provides some insight into the future plans of Rexall, the breadwinner upon whom the Oilers fortunes rely:
“This transaction unlocks significant value through the sale of two outstanding but non-core assets,” Katz said in a release. “We will intensify our focus on our corporately owned Rexall and Rexall/Pharma Plus store network to accelerate the growth of our Rexall brand and the value proposition that it represents to our patients and customers.
“We will also accelerate the growth of our related real estate interests.”
By "our" Katz means "his" and by "interests" he means "everything." This deal seems to suggest he can continue to operate the team spending to the cap whenever the Oilers brass are able to find time to take the team out of the basement of the league.
BALLING OUTTA CONTROL
It also suggests that Katz is now powerballing rich – second only to the previously mentioned Shaun Horcoff among Edmonton’s richest citizens.
Finally the unnamed industry analyst speaking throughout the article speculated on Katz’s substantial net worth:
“Oh yeah, he’s way in the money. He’s deep. He could build an arena by himself. And you know if it was a really good idea to spend $450 million on an arena, if there was a really great return on it, he would do it, right? That tells you everything you need to know about arena math.
He’s a pretty sharp businessman, and he’s made a lot of money off this set of assets.”
He’s way in the money? He’s deep? Who did they interview about this exactly? Kevin Lowe? An old tymey gambler from the horse track in Hoboken NJ, caught in a worm hole and sent back through time?
Whatever. Katz is mega-mega-mega rich and this should mean the Oilers are on titanium clad iron ore financial footing for years to come.
A FINAL TIDBIT
The article also seems to suggest that Katz may not be finished selling off parts of his sprawling empire:
“The (surprise) wrinkle in this deal is that it doesn’t include the corporate stores,” said one industry analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There’s a bunch of those left, but they have a long-term distribution deal with McKesson. So I have no idea whether Katz intends to sell those in a separate deal, but that’s possible. Maybe the way to maximize the price for his company was to sell this in two separate deals. But anybody who buys those (corporate) stores has to be distributed to by McKesson for the next few years.”
More money! More! Hang those who speak of less. Jordan Eberle needs his 54 year- $12 billion dollar contract right away!
#WINNING
*We assume this is how many folk talk.
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