Jana Partners' Barry Rosenstein: 'The Walgreens Situation Is Terrific'

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WAG stock is up almost 20 percent since last September when the company announced that it is giving activist hedge fund Jana Partner Two seats on its board. Barry Rosenstein, founder of Jana Partners, was on CNBC recently to discuss how things are improving at Walgreens.

A Welcoming Board

“Look the Walgreens situation is terrific,” Rosenstein said. “You have got a board that’s well meaning, that recognizes there were problems and they needed to address them. They invited me to go on the board, when I suggested they needed some representation from people with healthcare experience and with cost-cutting experience, they welcomed it and which is why we didn’t have any fight. They agreed to let me put [free] people on the board."

Pretty Exciting Things

Rosenstein was asked if he is all praise for Walgreen’s management only because they could see things from his perspective. He replied, “The stock is up 50 percent in last several months, there is tremendous change [effort]. There’s opportunities on the cost side, there’s opportunities on the capital allocation side and there’s strategic opportunities and I think you are going to see this company continue to do pretty exciting things.”

The Pessina Factor

He continued, “We are partnering with one of the great entrepreneurs of all times Stefano Pessina, who when I met him two years ago, I called right after the meeting I called my partner and I said,’we are buying a billion dollars of stock, we are going to back this guy’. “