Reliance Industries and Apollo Global Management in £5bn bid for Boots

theguardian.com:

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has teamed up with US private equity fund Apollo Global Management to make a £5bn bid for the UK’s Boots chain.

The pharmacy and beauty retailer’s current owner, US group Walgreens, which has controlled Boots since 2012, is expected to keep a minority stake under the deal.

Walgreens’ ongoing interest comes after concerns about the funding of Boots’ pension fund for which the US group is understood to underwrite guarantees worth billions of pounds.

A buyout led by Reliance Industries is expected to lead to expansion in Asia according to Bloomberg, which first reported the bid.

Ambani, who is one of India’s richest people with a fortune of more than $100bn (£79.7bn) according to Forbes, is chair of Reliance Industries, the group founded by his father that has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail.

Apollo has long been interested in the UK retail market. It lost out on Asda to the billionaire Issa brothers in 2020, lent money to former Topshop boss Philip Green as he tried to rescue his retail empire and previously owned jewellery retailer Watches of Switzerland. It also backs the Alteri fund, which bought the Missguided online retailer shortly before it went into administration.

It is not clear if the UK-based Issa brothers and their private equity partner TDR Capital, who recently bought Asda and own a string of petrol forecourts, will launch a rival bid.

Two of the world’s biggest private equity funds, CVC and Bain Capital, had considered a bid but are understood to have stepped back as they were not prepared to pay more than £4bn.

Walgreens is thought to have initially wanted at least £6bn for Boots when it began weighing up a sale last year as the