Privately-held Albertsons Companies is planning to buy the portion of Rite Aid that is not being sold to Walgreens Boots Alliance.
The combined value of Albertsons and Rite Aid, including debt, is around $24 billion. The proposed cash-and-stock deal will give Albertsons shareholders ownership of 71% and Rite Aid stakeholders 29% in the combined company.
Rite Aid owns a benefits management company along with thousands of drug stores and is valued at around $2.3 billion. Albertsons is the owner of supermarket chains such as Safeway and Tom Thumb.
This merger is said to be an effort by both companies to deal with the increasing competition in the retail food space from Amazon and Walmart.
The deal is also expected to position Albertsons to go public. At present, the company is privately-owned by investors including private equity firm Cerberus Capital.