The Weston family’s holding company, Wittington Investments, has agreed to buy U.K. pharmacy chain Boots from U.S. private equity firm Sycamore Partners for US$8.9 billion, including debt, the companies announced Wednesday.
The price is about $12.7 billion in Canadian dollars, according to Canadian Press. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, Wittington said in a news release.
Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is partnering with Wittington on the purchase. Wittington will keep operational control once the deal closes, and Galen Weston will become chairman of Boots.
The announcement follows reports on Oct. 1 that the family was in advanced talks to buy the chain for about £7 billion. As Canada News Media reported then, the talks had stalled earlier this year after the Westons lowered their offer, following Australian pharmacy group Sigma Healthcare’s exit from the process in June.
The purchase covers Boots’ retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland, Boots Opticians, the No7 Beauty Company, and the Thailand and franchised businesses. Boots employs more than 50,000 people, according to the Wittington release. Canadian Press reported the chain operates about 1,800 locations worldwide and was founded in 1849.
Sycamore and Stefano Pessina will keep Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland, the release said. Sycamore took control of Boots through its takeover of Walgreens Boots Alliance about a year ago.
CIBC and Morgan Stanley are lead financial advisers and lead arrangers for the acquisition financing, the release said. It did not provide a breakdown of how the purchase will be financed or how much Fairfax is contributing.
“We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment,” Weston said in the release.
Fairfax chief executive Prem Watsa said in the release: “We are very confident that Wittington will be an excellent steward of the Boots business.” Boots chief executive Alex Baldock said he looks forward to “building a world class Boots.”
RBC Capital Markets analyst Irene Nattel said the Weston family has the right background for the purchase. “We believe there is substantial organizational knowledge and understanding of retail pharmacy within the Weston family,” she said, according to Canadian Press.
That experience comes from Loblaw Cos. Ltd., the family’s grocery and pharmacy giant, which operates Shoppers Drug Mart. Canadian Press described Boots as holding a place in British retail comparable to Shoppers in Canada. Wittington’s holdings also include George Weston Ltd. and Holt Renfrew.
Several details remain unclear, including how the deal will be financed, what regulators in the U.K. and Ireland will review, and whether the Westons plan changes to the Boots store network, which has seen closures amid economic pressure, according to City A.M. Neither Wittington nor Boots has said whether Boots will be linked operationally to Loblaw. The story is developing.
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Via Canadian Press (CP24) and the Wittington Investments news release.
