Days before Chemist Warehouse sealed the deal on a historic $30 billion merger with Sigma Healthcare in a low-key suburban pub in Melbourne, one of its own directors and his wife quietly inked a record-breaking deal of their own in Byron Bay. The couple, who own 39 pharmacies between them, have emerged as the $33.5 million cash buyers of the spectacular luxury house known as Malia on Belongil Beach.
Damien Gance, who is a qualified pharmacist, was the very first Chemist Warehouse franchisee in 2000. But as the son of , one of the founders of Chemist Warehouse, it was always going to be in his DNA to further cement his stake in the pharmacy giant. Damien has been part of the team responsible for the company’s rise ever since as he went on to become the chief commercial officer of Chemist Warehouse before the merger.
His appointment to the board of directors and executive team of the merged group, with an annual salary of almost $674,000, was proposed to shareholders in an announcement late last year. But it is his shareholding in the merged company that turned the Melbourne-based pharmacist into a billionaire on paper overnight when the merger was done and dusted a little over a week ago. So it is no wonder he and his wife were able to comfortably purchase the home of property developer and McGrath director and his wife that took three years to rebuild.
The Mediterranean-inspired five-bedroom, six-bathroom house was conceived by Melbourne’s esteemed . The 2097-square-metre.
