Sycamore weighs $10bn Boots sale as early talks gather pace – report

Sycamore Partners is weighing a $10bn disposal of UK wellness and quality concatenation Boots, drafting early-stage involvement from Canada's Weston household and Australian healthcare radical Sigma Healthcare.

Sigma has acknowledged its information successful the process, telling the Financial Times it had “engaged successful preliminary discussions successful narration to the merchantability process”.

The Sydney-listed radical entered the UK marketplace past period done a associated task with GreenLight Healthcare, which runs 22 pharmacies crossed London, UK, and its surrounding areas.

Sycamore took ownership of Boots erstwhile it acquired Walgreens Boots Alliance for $23.7bn past year, aboriginal restructuring the radical into 5 abstracted operating businesses.

The Weston household is pursuing the acquisition via Wittington Investments, its holding conveyance for Canadian market concatenation Loblaw and pharmacy relation Shoppers Drug Mart.

Shoppers Drug Mart was acquired for C$12.4bn ($8.90bn) successful 2013 and present has much than 1,300 stores crossed Canada.

A palmy woody would correspond the family's archetypal important instrumentality to UK retail since it sold Selfridges for £4bn ($5.35bn) successful 2022.

Talks are understood to person commenced earlier this year, though sources cautioned that proceedings stay astatine an aboriginal signifier and nary steadfast determination has been reached.

The Stefano Pessina family, whose patriarch drove the 2012 operation of Boots and Walgreens, holds a 44% involvement crossed each 5 businesses spun retired of the alliance.

A backstage merchantability would dampen hopes that Boots could articulation Waterstones and Superdrug successful bolstering London's IPO pipeline astatine a clip erstwhile nationalist marketplace enactment is nether pressure.

Boots posted gross maturation of 3.2% to £7.5bn for the twelvemonth to August 2025, supported by caller quality marque additions and accrued request for weight-loss jabs.

Pre-tax nett roseate 25% to £337m, partially owed to the reversal of impairment charges.

The retailer has precocious brought successful erstwhile Currys main enforcement Alex Baldock to caput the business.

Founded arsenic a azygous chemist successful 1849, Boots has faced ownership uncertainty for respective years.

Walgreens explored a merchantability of the concern successful 2022, attracting involvement from Apollo and TDR Capital, but the process was abandoned aft bids failed to conscionable expectations.

"Sycamore weighs $10bn Boots merchantability arsenic aboriginal talks stitchery gait – report" was primitively created and published by Retail Insight Network, a GlobalData owned brand.

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