Ex-intern becomes billionaire in Australia pharmacy merger.

More than 100 shareholders are officially millionaires. At least 10 are worth over $100 million. And atop the group are three billionaires, including one former intern.

Behind this blitz of riches, rare even for Australia where a decades-long mining boom has minted fortunes, is the merger of closely held pharmacy franchiser Chemist Warehouse with publicly traded Sigma Healthcare Ltd.—a deal that has created one of Australia’s largest pharmacy chains and wholesalers.

The biggest winners: Chemist Warehouse’s founders—Jack Gance and his brother Sam—and Mario Verrocchi, who rose from intern to become the chain’s chief executive officer. Each is worth at least $2.5 billion after shares in the combined entity started trading Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Verrocchi has a fortune of $4.4 billion.

Shares rose as much as 7.6% Thursday, to trade at around A$2.95 as at 12:12 p.m. in Sydney.

Source: FORTUNE