Canada's Weston family agrees to buy Boots for $8.9 billion, with Fairfax set to own half

Wittington Investments, the holding company of Canada's Weston family, has agreed to buy Boots from Sycamore Partners and the family of Stefano Pessina for $8.9 billion including assumed debt, with Toronto-based Fairfax Financial expected to own half of Britain's leading pharmacy chain once the deal closes.

The price, about 6.7 billion pounds, covers Boots' retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland, Boots Opticians, the No7 Beauty Company and Boots' businesses in Thailand and its franchise operations. It does not cover the rest of The Boots Group. Sycamore and the Pessinas will keep Farmacias Benavides in Mexico and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland, a German pharmaceutical wholesaler that supplies more than 11,000 pharmacies. The agreement, announced Wednesday, still needs regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.

Who is putting up the money

Fairfax, the insurance and investment group run by Prem Watsa, has signed an equity commitment letter to provide up to about $2.3 billion toward the purchase price, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Once the deal closes, Fairfax expects to own 50% of Boots' equity, while Wittington will have operational control and its chairman, Galen Weston, will become chairman of Boots. Units of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Morgan Stanley are arranging and providing the acquisition financing.

Watsa said Fairfax was "very confident that Wittington will be an excellent steward of the Boots business." Fairfax already owns Canadian retailers including the mattress chain Sleep Country and Sporting Life Group, a specialty sports retailer. Its shares were little changed in Toronto, down about 0.3% at 2,206.48 Canadian dollars at 12:23 p.m. Eastern time.

What the Westons are buying

Boots has about 1,800 stores and 51,000 employees in Britain after closing hundreds of branches, and its shops sit close to 80% of the population. Its loyalty program has 17 million members. The chain traces its roots to a herbalist shop John Boot opened in Nottingham in 1849.

Wittington is the controlling shareholder of George Weston Ltd. and, through it, Loblaw, Canada's largest grocer and the owner of Shoppers Drug Mart, the country's largest pharmacy, health and beauty business. It owned the London department store Selfridges from 2003 to 2021. A separate British branch of the family is the majority owner of Associated British Foods, the parent of Primark.

Weston said the family sees "a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better" through long-term ownership and more capital investment. Wittington said it plans to upgrade stores, improve the online business and expand the healthcare services Boots offers, without giving figures. Alex Baldock, Boots' chief executive, said the opportunity ahead was "even greater" than what the company had achieved so far.

Sycamore's sale

Sycamore, a New York private equity firm with about $14 billion of assets under management, gained control of Boots through its roughly $24 billion buyout of Walgreens in 2025 and set Boots up as a standalone company a year ago. "This transaction is a testament to the work they have done," said Stefan Kaluzny, a managing director of Sycamore.

Pessina, the former executive chairman of Walgreens Boots Alliance, bought into Boots in 2007 and kept a stake after Sycamore took majority control. He said he was "delighted to be passing on a thriving Boots to strong and reliable owners."