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Boots has been spun off from its US parent amid hopes the pharmacy chain could be floated on the London stock market.
Buyout group Sycamore Partners has broken up Walgreens Boots Alliance following its £7.4billion purchase of the American giant. A new business called The Boots Group will be based in the UK and include the chemist’s UK and Irish chains, Boots opticians and No7 Beauty company.
It also includes parts of what used to be the company’s international arm such as pharmacies in Thailand, Mexico and Germany.
Sycamore boss Stefan Kaluzny said the new group ‘will now be free to invest and grow more aggressively into the future’. Ornella Barra, who was chief operating officer of the international business, will run the new group while Anthony Hemmerdinger will continue to lead Boots UK & Ireland.
Italian billionaire and WBA boss Stefano Pessina and his family will retain a stake in Boots. Pressure is now on ministers and City executives to persuade Sycamore to list Boots on the London stock market through an initial public offering.
The return of Boots, which started out as a family herbal medicine shop in Nottingham in 1849, would be a much-needed vote of confidence. But it is feared Sycamore will, in fact, sell it instead. Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said: ‘One of the central features of a private equity deal is that it ends in another deal, so let’s see.’
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