Walgreens Boots Alliance is considering a sale to private equity firm Sycamore Partners, according to a new report.
A three-byline “exclusive” story posted Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal comes with the drugstore giant’s stock suffering following a disastrous investment by former management in physician-staffed clinic operator VillageMD.
The newspaper said Walgreens parent and Sycamore Partners have been “discussing a deal that could be completed early next year, assuming talks don’t fall apart,” the story said, citing “people familiar with the matter.”
Such reports have emerged in the past and never turned out in the form of an actual deal or sale. There’s also been speculation in recent years that Walgreens would spin off, sell or take private its Boots chain of pharmacies based in the United Kingdom, but those talks either didn’t go anywhere, didn’t exist or fell apart.
Reached Tuesday for comment, a Walgreens spokesman declined to comment on “rumors/speculation.”
Sycamore Partners specializes in “retail and consumer investments,” according to the company’s website. The Wall Street Journal report indicated other partners may be needed to take over Walgreens given the company’s size, owning more than 12,000 drugstores in the U.S., Europe and Latin America.
Nearly a decade ago, Walgreens was valued at more than $100 billion in market capitalization but the company’s value today is less than 10% of that.
Among Walgreens biggest problems has been its investment in VillageMD, a Chicago based operator of primary care centers, physician practices and clinics attached to Walgreen stores.
Walgreens earlier this year said it was looking to reduce its investment in VillageMD after billions of dollars in losses and the need to focus on more profitable ventures such as specialty pharmacy to turn around the drugstore chain. In June, Walgreens chief executive officer Tim Wentworth told analysts the company would remain an investor and partner in VillageMD, but is working with VillageMD’s management “toward an endpoint.”
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