(Bloomberg) -- Vericast Corp., the payment and marketing company controlled by billionaire Ronald Perelman, sold its discount drug company RxSaver to GoodRx Holdings Inc. for $50 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The sale occurred in April, the company told investors on a private call Thursday, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential matter. Vericast didn’t say how it plans to use proceeds from the deal beyond general corporate purposes, they added.

Vericast had been weighing a potential sale of RxSaver for months amid a competitive market for drugs savings. The discounts have become more crucial for consumers with tighter wallets during the pandemic.

On the investor call, Vericast also reported a 6% revenue drop for the first quarter, to $646.5 million, compared with $691 million a year ago, the people said.

A measure of Vericast’s adjusted earnings declined 3% to $104.1 million versus $107.3 million a year ago, said the people. Earnings at Vericast’s Valassis business dropped to $20 million versus $32 million in the same period a year ago, while Harland Clarke’s adjusted earnings rose 9.5% to $93.3 million.

A representative for Vericast and Perelman’s MacAndrews & Forbes Inc. declined to comment. A representative for GoodRx said the company would discuss the sale when it reported earnings later Thursday.

Drug Discounts

RxSaver lets consumers compare prescription drug prices among pharmacies and offers savings through coupons and bar codes on its website and mobile app. When customers pay at the drugstore, RxSaver gets a cut of the sale as a transaction fee that’s included in the base price.

Former Vericast online coupon company RetailMeNot Inc. bought RxSaver in March 2018 for an undisclosed price. The acquisition was part of the company’s plans to expand beyond traditional retail into health-care services. The drug discounter competes with a number of services, including SingleCare and America’s Pharmacy.

Vericast, backed by MacAndrews & Forbes, has been reworking its balance sheet using proceeds from asset sales. Proceeds from its sale of RetailMeNot last year were used to buy back about $336 million of bonds and pay down part of a term loan last year, Bloomberg reported.

Based in San Antonio, Texas, Vericast has about $2.7 billion of debt and around $60 million of cash, the people said. It provides marketing services, coupons and checks at its Valassis and Harland Clarke businesses.

The company scrapped a $1.8 billion bond sale in March after struggling to agree on terms, Bloomberg reported. Creditors were calling for RXSaver to be moved to a restricted subsidiary as part of the potential debt deal, the people said.

Vericast’s 8.375% first-lien notes due 2022 trade around 101 cents on the dollar, according to Trace bond trading data. Its term loan is quoted around 93 cents, Bloomberg data show.

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