Boots sets mid-May deadline as owner seeks multi-billion sale
Boots’ owner has set a deadline of 16 May for final offers for the chemist chain.
Walgreens Boots Alliance’s (WBA) has issued the deadline to suitors as it seeks to sell the chain, Sky News has reported.
Suitors expected to make final proposals include Asda and Apollo Global Management.
However, India’s Reliance Industries was thought likely to table a standalone bid, however.
The report comes after an early frontrunner, a joint approach from Bain Capital and CVC Capital Partners, had withdrawn from the race. It was reported the firms were not willing to cough up the multi-billion price tag that WBA had been hoping for.
Ornella Barra, one of the owners of Walgreens Boots Alliance, said earlier this year that an IPO had initially been eyed as a way to spin off the chain, before interest from takeover firms.
“At the beginning we had the idea of an IPO, but we didn’t start the process because the offers came in,’ she told Daily Mail.
At the time, Barra refused to rule out an IPO for the firm, however, saying “everything is on the table.”
“If the offers (from private equity bidders) are not in line with our expectations we could come back to an IPO.”