Walgreens lines up Goldman Sachs to explore options for UK’s Boots chain

Walgreens Boots Alliance is lining up advisers to explore options including the sale of Boots, five years after it took full ownership of the UK retail pharmacy chain. Goldman Sachs will be asked to examine the hiving off of the Boots chain, which was founded in Nottingham by a Methodist family in 1849, potentially via a sale or separate listing. Neil Saunders at GlobalData said the Walgreens merger "Did Boots very few favours" and that it had "Suffered from a lack of investment and focus in areas like stores and services". "Walgreens brought Boots down to its level, which was completely the wrong outcome." Boots has one of the UK's leading retail loyalty schemes with more than 14m active members and a highly defensive pharmacy business that dispenses up to 2,000 prescriptions each week on behalf of the UK's state health service.

Read the full story

 Related companies

Make a complaint about Boots by viewing their customer service contacts.

•