The billionaire Isa brothers are in pole position to buy Boots after a group of major bidders dropped out.
According to Sky News, the owners of Asda remain in the running to acquire the pharmacy giant after a team of interested buyers, Bain Capital and CVC Capital Partners, dropped out of a £6billion deal.
Boots has around 2,200 stores in the UK, employing more than 50,000 people, and according to the Mirror a takeover could be worth as much as £10billion.
Sky said the firms pulled out because Walgreens wanted too much money for Boots.
Buyers who are also understood to be interested in the past include investment firm Advent, Carlyle and KKR.
KKR owned Boots in the past, before selling it to Walgreens.
Boots would not comment. Asda has been approached for comment.
Bank Goldman Sachs is handling the sale.
The sale process is being run by Goldman Sachs.
Asda is owned by billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa.
The pair started off in business by founding Euro Garages with a single petrol station in Bury, Greater Manchester, before building it up to form a network of forecourts across the UK.
They formed EG Group with the backing of TDR Capital and expanded into Europe before the brothers and the private equity firm teamed up to buy Asda in 2020.
EG Group now owns 6,000 forecourts, as well as various fast food brands in Europe and the US.
Last October The Mirror reported EG Group would sell 27 petrol filling stations to Park Garage Group, as part of a deal made when buying Asda.
In June the Issas agreed to sell some of the EG Group petrol stations due to competition concerns from the Competition and Markets Authority around their separate buyout of Asda.
Fried chicken fans might also be interested to know that the Issas are the biggest KFC operators in Western Europe.
Last September the duo bought 52 branches of KFC in the UK from Amsric Group. The 52 branches employ more than 1,600 staff and include traditional KFC sit-down restaurants and drive-through outlets.
The Amsric deal makes EG the biggest KFC franchise owner in Western Europe, it said, and means it now controls more than 220 of the fried chicken restaurants.
In March 2020, EG bought 146 KFCs and one Pizza Hut from The Herbert Group. In 2017, EG bought 77 Little Chef roadside restaurants.
In a previous interview, Zuber Issa said: “We grew (EG) from nothing. We’ve been on the pumps, we’ve been stocking the shelves, cleaning the toilets. You do everything.
“And once you do the foundation work, it’s no different wherever you go in the world. It’s a petrol station; you’re selling fuel, you’re selling coffee, you’re selling convenience.”
