Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) and US-based Apollo Global Management have collaborated to bid for Boots, an international chemist and drugstore unit of Walsgreen Boots Alliance Inc, the Economic Times has reported.
According to the report, the combined bid from RIL and Apollo for Boots could come in as early as on June 3 (Friday).
Currently, the drugstore chain is owned by American retail giant Walgreens Boots Alliance and has a presence in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Indonesia.
According to other media reports, a consortium, backed by billionaire businessmen Issa brothers, may drop out of the race for Boots over price disagreements. The consortium balked at a request by Walgreens to increase their offer for the Boots drugstore chain.
The Issa-TDR group was jointly bidding for Boots through Asda Group Ltd, the British grocery chain they own.
The report mentioned that Walsgreen had put up their business for sale in December last year and has been seeking a valuation of about 7 billion pounds ($8.8 billion) for Boots, though bidders had pegged its worth around 5 billion pounds.
According to bankers, RIL’s overseas subsidiary had teamed up with Apollo Global Management, the US private equity company, to finance the deal. They are also in talks to raise funds from other overseas banks.
If Reliance acquires Boots, it would give the company a formidable presence in the European retail market with access to 2,200 stores.
RIL had acquired online drug seller NetMeds in India and the Boots buyout will help it launch NetMeds in international market and bring the offline retail chain to India.