PARRISH MILLS, Ohio — Wittington Investments, the holding company of Canada’s Weston family, agreed Wednesday to buy Boots, the British pharmacy and beauty chain, in a deal valued at about £6.7 billion, or $8.9 billion including debt. The purchase covers Boots’ UK and Irish retail business, Boots Opticians and the No7 beauty brand.
The sellers are Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family. Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Galen Weston will become chairman of Boots after the sale closes.
Sycamore had explored a London stock market listing before talks with the Weston family began.
The Reporter has not been able to establish how a family can own a pharmacy chain for a day before agreeing to buy it. Nobody at the Reporter asked.
Gordon Vail, a retail analyst who has covered British high-street chains for 19 years from an office above a parking garage in Columbus, Ohio, said the arrangement was efficient. “They have been running it since Tuesday, which is a day more than the paperwork,” Vail said. “Most buyers wait for a form. This one got ahead of it.”
Vail said the gap would be hard to spot. “The shops will look exactly the same as they did on Tuesday,” Vail said. “That is the part they already own.”
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the timing was a sign of confidence. “Nobody is waiting for a spring that hasn’t come yet,” Brickhouse said by phone from a car wash. “It’s just common sense.”
Boots shoppers reached on Saturday said they had not noticed a change in ownership. Asked whether they had noticed one since Tuesday, two said they had not been in since Monday.
Glenn Whitacre, reached by phone from a rental car in a Boots parking lot, said the call dropped twice before he could confirm the parking was validated.