Mukesh Ambani set to benefit as Issa brothers, TDR mull quitting Boots race

A consortium backed by the billionaire Issa brothers is considering dropping out of the bidding for Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s international arm due to disagreements over price, people with knowledge of the matter said. 

The Issas, who were bidding together with TDR Capital, balked at a request by Walgreens to increase their offer for the Boots drugstore chain and are now thinking about walking away, the people said. Shares of Walgreens pared earlier gains and closed up 1.4% Thursday in New York. 

The situation is fluid, and the investor group could still reenter the race if it can reach a compromise on price with Walgreens, the people said. The US company has been seeking a valuation of about 7 billion pounds ($8.8 billion) for Boots, though bidders had pegged its worth around 5 billion pounds, Bloomberg News has reported. In auction situations, potential buyers sometimes walk away from the negotiating table in order to gain a tactical advantage.

The Issa-TDR group had been one of the two main suitors remaining in the contest. They were bidding for Boots through Asda Group Ltd., the British grocery chain they jointly own. 

A consortium of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. and Apollo Global Management Inc. is the other serious party left in the race. That group was still working to line up financing in recent days and hadn’t yet submitted a second-round offer, Bloomberg News reported this week. Sycamore Partners had also expressed interest in Boots earlier in the race, people with knowledge of the matter have said. 

Representatives for the Issa-TDR consortium and Walgreens declined to comment. 

The Boots sale has emerged a litmus test for dealmaking in the UK as credit markets become increasingly fragile. The easy financing conditions that supported a series of debt-fueled takeovers of British companies last year have mostly come to an end. Banks that funded the private-equity buyout of Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc had to sell some of the debt at a steep discount.