Walgreens Could About to Have the Biggest Private Equity Buyout Ever

KKR has formally made an offer to buy global drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance this week.

The private equity group has approached the pharmacy giant to take the company private in what could become the biggest private equity transaction ever on record.

Walgreens shares were soaring on Monday as Wall Street learned the news from a Bloomberg report.

The company, which owns Walgreens and Duane Reade in the US, has been suffering in recent years as it closes stores and slashes jobs in an attempt to cut costs $1.8 billion a year by the year 2022. Walgreens, which operates in 25 countries and has more than 415,000 employees, has said that it could close as many as 200 stores over the next couple of years.

It is unclear whether the proposal from KKR is feasible because of the large amount of financing required. The two companies could decide not to pursue a deal, according to people who asked Bloomberg not to be identified.

“It might be possible. It’s a huge stretch doing things over $50bn,” remarked Stephen Schwarzman, head of Blackstone.

Walgreens has a market cap of about $53 billion and $16.8 billion of debt which means that taking it private would top the largest leveraged buyout in history:

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.