(Reuters) – Rite Aid will operate as a private company following its successful financial restructuring and exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the U.S. drugstore chain said on Tuesday.

The pharmacy has used its bankruptcy to close hundreds of stores, sell its pharmacy business Elixir and negotiate settlements with its lenders, its drug distribution partner McKesson and other creditors.

Ownership of the company has been transferred to certain Rite Aid creditors and all existing Rite Aid common stock has been cancelled, it said.

Rite Aid also announced that Chief Financial Officer Matt Schroeder has been named CEO, succeeding Jeffrey Stein.

The company has reduced its total debt of about $2 billion and received about $2.5 billion in exit financing to finance the business in the future, it said.

In June, a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Rite Aid’s restructuring plan on the grounds that it would save the company from closure and liquidation of its operations.

Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023 after reporting losses of $750 million and revenue of $24 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2023.

Before Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy, the company faced 1,600 lawsuits over opioid-related issues. Among other things, the federal government accused the company of ignoring warning signs when writing suspect prescriptions for the addictive painkillers.

Rite Aid operated 2,000 pharmacies at the time of its bankruptcy and expects to emerge from Chapter 11 with a smaller retail presence.

During the bankruptcy, Rite Aid closed all of its stores in Michigan and all but four in Ohio. The company said the withdrawal from these states was necessary to keep the company “financially and operationally healthy.”

Rite Aid reported the closure of 160 stores in Michigan and 111 stores in Ohio in court documents filed between June and August.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru and Dietrich Knauth in New York; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Bill Berkrot)