Sycamore Said to Near Deal to Sell Boots

The owner of Boots is nearing a deal to sell the UK health and beauty retail business to the Canadian branch of the billionaire Weston family, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which took control of Boots through the acquisition of parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. in 2025, could reach an agreement in the next few weeks, the person said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential.

The deliberations are ongoing and could still fall apart, the person said. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Sycamore was near a deal to sell the firm for around $9 billion including debt.

Representatives for Sycamore and Boots declined to comment. A representative for the Weston family couldn’t immediately be reached.

Boots’ roster of more than 1,800 stores across the UK is set to change hands just weeks after new chief executive Alex Baldock, the former boss of Currys Plc, started in his role. Any sale would also end speculation about a Boots initial public offering, a blow to London’s more than 300-year-old stock exchange, which has been suffering from a dearth of new share sales.

The retailer has been a fixture of UK high streets for generations, combining a large pharmacy operation with well-known health and beauty brands. That has helped make it an attractive asset, and it has changed hands several times over the past two decades as part of wider corporate transactions.

The company reported revenue rose 3.2 percent to £7.5 billion ($9.9 billion) in its latest full-year accounts filed at Companies House, covering the 12 months to the end of August 2025. Pretax profit jumped 25 percent to £337 million.

The Canadian Westons own Loblaws grocery stores and the pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart and have long had links to the UK retail sector. For almost two decades they owned Selfridges & Co., investing in its flagship Oxford Street store and integrating the business into a retail group with its Brown Thomas and Arnotts stores in Ireland.

The Selfridges Group, which also included De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, was sold to a Thai-Austrian joint venture for about £4 billion in 2021.

The Canadian branch operates separately from the UK Westons, who control Primark-owner Associated British Foods Plc as well as Fortnum & Mason. Despite the shared name and family lineage, the two groups are run through separate holding companies and have distinct business interests.

Australian pharmacy group Sigma Healthcare Ltd. said in June it was withdrawing from the Boots sale process after concluding an acquisition wouldn’t meet its strategic and capital investment objectives.

By Deirdre Hipwell

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