Loblaw Companies, Canada's biggest food retailer, will buy Shoppers Drug Mart for $11.9 billion as it faces increasing competition from U.S.-based Target Corporation and Wal-Mart Stores. By acquiring Canada's biggest pharmacy chain, Loblaw said it would create a retail giant with more than $40 billion in revenue. "With scale and capability, we will be able to accelerate our momentum and strengthen our position in the increasingly competitive marketplace," Loblaw chairman Galen Weston said in a statement. Loblaw's offer of cash and stock is a 27 percent premium above Shoppers Drug Mart's closing stock price Friday. Shoppers Drug Mart, a 50-year-old company, owns about 1,300 drug stores across Canada.
