Boots snapped up by us private equity giant Sycamore in $10bn takeover

Walgrens Boots Alliance, owner of the Boots Pharmacy Series since 2014, is scheduled to be obtained by the US SYCAMORE PARTNERS company for $ 10 billion (7.7 billion pounds).

The SYCAMORE offer of $ 11.45 per share, which represents an 8 percent installment, contradicts the latest closing price for Walgrens, in a flagrant contradiction with the peak of $ 85 in 2015, when the company reached more than $ 90 billion.

During the past year, the price of the Walgreens shares decreased almost half, amid intense competition from online retailers and pressure on health insurance batches. Despite the employment of about 311,000 people around the world, the company has struggled to maintain profitability, which led its leadership to consider many strategic moves – including shoes sculpting – the lower the market ceiling.

SYCamore Partners, based in New York, owns Staples in the US -based stationery chain (obtained for $ 7 billion in 2017) and a foodstuff chain. She had previously owned Court Jager and tried to buy Ted Baker in 2022. Walgrens treats the “Go-Swork” window, which lasted 35 days, during which the American pharmacy giant can invite and evaluate competing bids.

Walgrens Boots runs around 12,500 pharmacists worldwide, including 1900 UK shoe stores. The history of the series dates back to 174 years, as it was credited with circulating the pharmacy retail across Britain. Although it benefited from the explosion of demand in the nineties and early first decade of the twentieth century, boots has faced new competition in recent years, as well as periodic financial burdens caused by the wealth of its changing mother company.

Under the ownership of Sycamore Partners, Walgreens is scheduled to go to the private, as CEO Tim Wetter argues that the group's “ambitious transformation strategy” will be managed more effectively from the public glow. Sikammour's manager, Stephen Calozni, says that the company is still confident in the “model led by pharmacy” and “the primary role” of the Walgreens shoe network.

Analysts such as Michael Cherny at Leerink Partners did not express a little surprise in this announcement, noting that the size and complexity of the deal made an unlikely competitive offer. By the time the deal is closed in the fourth quarter of this year, both the wider global operations in Walgreens and Walgrens will be under the ownership of SYCAMORE, indicating a great behavior in both British and international retail retail.