Walgreens Boots Alliance(NASDAQ:WBA) is close to a deal for insurer Legal & General to take over responsibility for the UK Boots pharmacy chain’s £5Bn legacy pension plan.
Walgreens Boots (WBA) has been negotiating a so-called pension risk transfer deal with L&G for some time, according to a report in the London Times on Thursday.
An agreement to unload the pension plan could be crucial for Walgreens Boots (WBA) as it may enable the U.S. drugstore chain to sell its UK Boots business, which was shelved last year at least partly due to potential buyers’ concerns about the legacy pension plan.
Walgreens (WBA) had hoped to raise as much as £7 billion from the Boots sale, but the offers were thought to be closer to £5.5 billion, according to the Times report.
Walgreens (WBA) in June 2022 confirmed that the sale of its Boots drugstore chain in the U.K. had been terminated due to the change in financial markets. Walgreens had been in talks with a consortium between Reliance Industries Ltd. and Apollo (APO) over the £5.5 billion sale of the British drugstore chain, according to media reports.