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.
What is being sold, and what is not
The deal covers Boots' shops in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company, and the Thailand and franchised businesses. The Boots Group's other interests, in Farmacias Benavides, a Mexican pharmacy chain, and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland, a German pharmaceutical wholesaler, stay with Sycamore and the Pessina family.
That is the latest of several divisions. Mr Pessina took Boots private with the backing of KKR in 2007, The Guardian reported, and has kept a stake under different owners since, merging it into Walgreens and then separating it again. Sycamore bought Walgreens Boots Alliance in a $10 billion deal that closed on 28 August 2025, and split the company into five standalone businesses, one of them The Boots Group, Healthcare Dive reported.
"One year ago, we re-established Boots as a standalone company, allowing its management team and more than 50,000 colleagues to focus solely on their business and customers," said Stefan Kaluzny, Sycamore's managing director, in Wittington's release.
How the money divides
Neither company said how much of the $8.9 billion is equity and how much is debt. CIBC and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding are lead arrangers and are providing the acquisition financing, Wittington said.
Fairfax's figures allow a rough estimate. If its up to $2.3 billion buys half of the equity, Wittington puts in a matching amount and the rest of the price is borrowed, the equity would be about $4.6 billion and the debt, assumed and new, about $4.3 billion, by this publication's estimate. That is an inference: Fairfax said "up to", Wittington did not disclose its contribution, and the split could be different.
On that estimate, Sycamore's own purchase of Walgreens leaned more heavily on borrowing. As of June 2025, Walgreens reported that $13.3 billion, or 71 per cent, of the purchase price was to be funded with debt, according to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a group that campaigns against private equity practices. The same group said on Monday that one of Sycamore's co-investment vehicles for the Walgreens deal had more than doubled in value by 30 June, according to reports from one investor.
Why a grocery family wants a pharmacy chain
Wittington is the controlling shareholder of George Weston Limited and, through it, of Loblaw, Canada's largest grocer, which owns Shoppers Drug Mart, the country's largest pharmacy, health and beauty business. The family's link to Britain includes owning Selfridges from 2003 to 2021, Wittington said. The separate British branch of the family controls Associated British Foods, the owner of Primark.
"We believe there is substantial organizational knowledge and understanding of retail pharmacy within the Weston family of businesses and investments, knowledge that would prove extremely useful should a transaction come to fruition," Irene Nattel, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note on 30 September, The Canadian Press reported. She did not expect much impact on Loblaw or George Weston if a deal were done through Wittington. RBC Capital Markets is among Wittington's financial advisers on the deal.
"We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come," Mr Weston said. Wittington said it plans to upgrade stores, improve the online business and expand the healthcare services available to customers.
A chain that has been hard to sell
Boots has roughly 1,800 shops and has closed more than 300 in recent years, The Guardian reported. Walgreens put it up for sale in 2022 with a suggested price of up to £10 billion, then dropped the plan as potential buyers struggled to raise money, and a plan to float it at about £7 billion was dropped in 2024. The family that controls Canadian Utilities agreed on Tuesday to give up that control; this family is taking one on.
"For years, watching Boots has been a bit like watching corporate pass the parcel," Richard Hyman, a retail analyst, told The Guardian. "Its ownership has changed with extraordinary frequency and each owner has stripped a bit more out of it."
The deal needs regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.
The terms, the assets included and excluded, the purchase price including assumed debt, the financing banks, the timetable and the remarks of Galen Weston, Prem Watsa, Stefan Kaluzny, Stefano Pessina and Alex Baldock are from Wittington's announcement of 7 October 2026 on Cision's newswire.ca. Fairfax's contribution and 50 per cent equity stake are from Fairfax's announcement of the same day on GlobeNewswire. Dollar figures are in US dollars unless marked C$. The sterling value, the history of earlier sale attempts and store closures, and Richard Hyman's remarks are as reported by The Guardian. The Canadian dollar value, Boots' founding date and Irene Nattel's note are as reported by The Canadian Press, published by CBC News. The completion of the Walgreens buyout and its split into five companies are as reported by Healthcare Dive. The share of the Walgreens buyout funded by debt is from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. The equity and debt split is this publication's estimate. Accurate to 3pm ET on 7 October 2026.
Topics businessmergers and acquisitionsprivate equityretailpharmacyfamily business
