Boots Owner 'Closing In on Sale to Canada's Weston Family for $9bn'
Boots
The private equity owner of high street pharmacy Boots is reportedly closing in on a deal to sell the business to the Canadian branch of the billionaire Weston family for $9bn (£7bn).
Sycamore Partners, which bought the wider Walgreens Boots Alliance for $23.7bn in 2025, is said to be in advanced talks with the Westons, with the Financial Times reporting that a deal could be completed as soon as next week.
If successful, it would mark the return of the Canadian branch of the Weston family to the UK high street, having previously owned Selfridges. They later sold the department store chain for £4bn in 2022. The Westons are known throughout Canada for owning the grocery store Loblaws and the pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart.
The UK branch of the family operates its businesses through a separate investment vehicle and holds a majority stake in Primark through Associated British Foods.
News of the Prospective Weston Deal
This comes months after Sycamore tried and failed to sell Boots to Sigma Healthcare, an Australian pharmaceutical group, in a deal valued at $10bn this summer.
Sycamore has been expected to spin off and sell Boots – along with other parts of the group – after its takeover of Walgreen Boots Alliance last year. It has already split the group into five stand-alone companies.
About Boots
Founded in Nottingham in 1849 by John Boot, Boots has changed hands several times in the past 20 years. After a merger with Alliance Unichem in 2006, the combined company was taken over by private equity firm KKR in 2007, before Walgreens acquired a 45% stake in 2012 and completed a takeover at the end of 2014.
Boots operates 1,800 stores across the UK and employs about 51,000 people, including approximately 6,000 at its headquarters in Beeston, three miles southwest of Nottingham.