Asda owners Issa brothers in prime position to buy Boots in possible £6bn takeover
03.03.2022 - 15:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The billionaire Isa brothers are in pole position to buy Boots after a group of major bidders dropped out.
According to Sky News, the owners of Asda remain in the running to acquire the pharmacy giant after a team of interested buyers, Bain Capital and CVC Capital Partners, dropped out of a £6billion deal.
Boots has around 2,200 stores in the UK, employing more than 50,000 people, and according to the Mirror a takeover could be worth as much as £10billion.
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Sky said the firms pulled out because Walgreens wanted too much money for Boots.
Buyers who are also understood to be interested in the past include investment firm Advent, Carlyle and KKR.
KKR owned Boots in the past, before selling it to Walgreens.
Boots would not comment. Asda has been approached for comment.
Bank Goldman Sachs is handling the sale.
The sale process is being run by Goldman Sachs.
Asda is owned by billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa.
The pair started off in business by founding Euro Garages with a single petrol station in Bury, Greater Manchester, before building it up to form a network of forecourts across the UK.
They formed EG Group with the backing of TDR Capital and expanded into Europe before the brothers and the private equity firm teamed up to buy Asda in 2020.
EG Group now owns 6,000 forecourts, as well as various fast food brands in Europe and the US.
Last October The Mirror reported EG Group would sell 27 petrol filling stations to Park Garage Group, as part of a deal made when buying Asda.
In June the Issas agreed to sell some of the EG Group petrol stations due to competition concerns from the Competition and Markets