Billionaire Weston family buys Boots for $9bn
The billionaire Weston family has struck a deal to buy Boots for nearly $9bn, scuppering hopes that the high street giant could return to the London Stock Exchange.
Wittington Investments, the holding company for the Westons’ Canadian operations, said on Wednesday it will buy Boots from its private equity owners, Sycamore Partners.
The deal brings to an end months of speculation over whether Boots, one of the UK’s biggest high street retailers, could make a blockbuster return to London’s public market.
The $8.9bn (£6.7bn) sale will include the company’s retail operations in the UK and Ireland, its opticians business, its No7 Beauty brand and its Thailand franchise operations.
Alex Baldock, who joined Boots as its chief executive just last month, said: “For all of our social impact and commercial success to-date, the opportunity ahead is even greater.
“I look forward to making the most of that opportunity and building a world class Boots for our colleagues, customers, patients, and communities.”
Stefano Pessina and his family, who grew Boots into a worldwide retail empire, will keep hold of the company’s stakes in Mexican drugstore chain Farmacias Benavides and pharma group Alliance Healthcare Deutschland.
Pessina partnered with Sycamore to orchestrate its $10bn acquisition of Boots from Walgreens Boots Alliance in August last year but had since stepped down from his executive chair role to become a director.
Westons pledge ‘stable ownership’
Galen Weston, who is the chair of Wittington and will become Boots chairman, said: “We have great respect for Boots’ legacy and leading market position.
“We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come.”
Fairfax, a Toronto-based holding company, will partner with Wittington to complete the acquisition.
Prem Watsa, its chairman and chief executive, said: “For many years, the Westons have grown and developed some of the most successful retail brands in Canada, including in pharmacy and beauty, and we are very confident that Wittington will be an excellent steward of the Boots business and a terrific partner to Fairfax.”
The Westons are one of the world’s richest families. Through their UK business they own a majority stake in FTSE-100-listed AB Foods, which includes fast-fashion retailer Primark.
Boots became the first ever blue-chip firm to quit the London Stock Exchange in a private equity takeover when it was bought by Pessina and US investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 2007.
Hopes of its return to the FTSE had been raised earlier this year when Australian pharmacy giant Sigma Healthcare quit talks over a private sale, leaving just an IPO and the Westons as the company’s two options.