Cardinal Health Inc., a $99 billion health care services company, announced its acquisition of drug distributor Kinray Inc. for $1.3 billion in cash to expand its presence in community pharmacy.

The deal will broaden Cardinal Health's customer mix by increasing its retail independent pharmacy base by 40 percent to about 7,000 total customers, the company said.

Adding Kinray to the Cardinal Health Pharmaceutical Segment portfolio will enable us to build on our increasing presence in community pharmacy and accelerate our growth in this important channel, said George Barrett, chief executive of Cardinal Health.

Privately-held Kinray, with annual sales of over $3.5 billion, mainly serves the New York metropolitan area and will establish a stronger platform for Cardinal Health in the northeastern U.S. Founded in 1944, Kinray distributes pharmaceutical, generic, health & beauty and home health care products.

Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health expects the deal to be neutral to slightly add to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal 2011, depending on the timing of the closing of the transaction, which is expected by the end of the calendar year or early 2011.

Shares of Cardinal Health closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $34.47 on the NYSE. In pre-market trade on Thursday, the stock is down 0.58 percent at $34.27.

Nyse Health Care Reform Retail New York