Boots, the British pharmacy chain founded in 1849, has been taken private, merged into an American company, split out again and offered for sale more than once in the past two decades. On Wednesday it agreed to a new arrangement, in which the ownership is split down the middle and the control is not.

Wittington Investments, the private holding company of the Canadian branch of the Weston family, has agreed to buy Boots for $8.9 billion, including assumed debt, from The Boots Group, which is majority owned by Sycamore Partners in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family, according to Wittington's announcement. That is about £6.74 billion, The Guardian reported, or almost C$12.7 billion, according to The Canadian Press.

Wittington will not be paying for it alone. Fairfax Financial Holdings, the Toronto company run by Prem Watsa, which is mainly a property and casualty insurer and reinsurer, has agreed to provide up to approximately $2.3 billion and is expected to own 50 per cent of Boots' equity once the deal closes, Fairfax said. Wittington will have operational control, and Galen Weston, its chairman, will become chairman of Boots.