Reliance Industries considers joint offer with US takeover firm for UK retailer Boots
London:
Reliance Industries, led by Mukesh Ambani, is considering a joint offer with US takeover firm Apollo Global Management for well-known UK retailer Boots, according to a UK media report on Thursday.
According to The Financial Times, the US private equity firm is teaming up with one of India’s wealthiest businessmen in a bid for the health and beauty retail chain headquartered in Nottingham. If successful, it is expected to lead to Boots’ expansion into India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The paper said people familiar with the matter said Reliance and Apollo Global would own equity stakes in Boots under the plan, but it’s not clear if their stakes would be equal.
So far, Apollo has declined to comment and Reliance Industries has not yet responded to the questions.
Boots’ US parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, put the company up for sale in December last year to focus on healthcare in the home market. It has set a May 16 deadline for bids, one of the people told the newspaper.
Boots, a popular UK pharmacy chain, has more than 2,000 stores across the country and reportedly gets about 45 percent of its estimated £6 billion in annual revenue from providing services such as prescriptions and vaccinations to the state-run National Health of the UK. Service (NHS).
Ambani’s other big takeover in the UK in recent years was in 2019, when he bought the famed toy store Hamleys for an undisclosed sum.
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