Walgreen buys 20 Puerto Rican drugstores

Walgreen Co., the largest U.S. drugstore chain, bought 20 drugstores from Puerto Rico's Farmacias El Amal.

Financial terms of the acquisition, which will be completed in the first quarter, weren't disclosed, Deerfield- based Walgreen said Thursday in a statement.

Walgreen's same-store sales last month rose 2.6 percent, the smallest increase in at least 17 years. The chain has more than 6,000 stores and expects to open number 7,000 by 2010.

Farmacias El Amal is a 61-store chain. Walgreen said it will keep store personnel while remodeling the outlets and changing the names on the stores. Walgreen entered the Puerto Rican market in 1960 and operates 73 locations there.

Walgreen rose 10 cents to $33.34 Thursday in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading. It fell 17 percent last year, the first annual decline since 2002.