Walgreens Boots Alliance's executive chair Stefano Pessina will almost double his stake in the US pharmacy group to about 30% as part of its $10 billion takeover by private equity group Sycamore, the Financial Times has reported.
Pessina, Walgreens' top shareholder with a roughly 17% stake in the company he helped forge through the 2014 merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots, will inject cash into it as part of the deal, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Pessina will also deepen his involvement in the group ahead of a possible break-up, the FT said.
Sycamore is planning a three-way split of Walgreens into a US retail pharmacy, Boots UK and US healthcare, the newspaper had reported in February.
Pessina and Sycamore declined to comment to the FT, while Walgreens did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not immediately reach Pessina for comment, while Walgreens and Sycamore did not respond to a request for comment.
Sycamore Partners
Walgreens Boots Alliance will be taken private by Sycamore Partners for $10 billion (€9.2 billion), the firms said, closing out nearly a century of trading on public markets for the US pharmacy giant, according to a Reuters report.
The price is a fraction of the $100 billion the second-largest US pharmacy chain was worth a decade ago.
Its fortunes collapsed as drug margins fell and as consumers turned to cheaper rivals such as Amazon and Walmart to fill their prescriptions and purchase toiletries.
Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share, a premium of 8% to Walgreens' closing price of $10.60 on Thursday (6 March 2025). Shares of the company rose nearly 6% in extended trading.
