Mukesh Ambani | Apollo: Mukesh Ambani and Apollo close in on Boots buyout

Mukesh Ambani-owned and US buyout firm Apollo Global Management are moving ahead to make a firm offer for Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc’s international chemist and drugstore units, known as Boots, said people in the know. Their binding bid could come in as early as Friday, they said.

ET was the first to report in its April 27 edition that

and Apollo are teaming up for Boots.

The Reliance-Apollo combination’s chances have improved in recent weeks, said people involved in the transaction, after Bloomberg reported on May 26 that a competing consortium backed by billionaire Issa brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who run a supermarket group Asda, and TDR Capital baulked at a request by Walgreens to increase their offer for the Boots drugstore chain, one of Britain’s best known retailers, and were planning to walk away from the competitive race. However, the report also added that the Issa Brothers led investor group could still reenter the race if it can reach a compromise on price with Boots’ US parent Walgreens Boots Alliance.

RIL-Apollo in Talks for Funding

The US company had put the business up for sale last December to focus on its home market. It has been seeking a valuation of about 7 billion pounds ($8.8 billion) for Boots, though bidders had pegged its worth at around 5 billion pounds in earlier non-binding rounds.

“As a policy, we do not comment on media speculation and rumours. Our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis,” a

spokesperson told ET. “We have made and will continue to make necessary disclosures in compliance with our obligations under Securities Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015 and our agreements with the stock exchanges.”

Apollo Global Management spokesperson said he had no comments to share. Wallgreens did not respond till press time.

Reliance and Apollo have been in dialogue with global banks and financial institutions to stitch together funding for what would arguably be its largest cross-border acquisition till date. However, it has not closed financing for the deal yet. Market turmoil following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made financing a large leveraged buyout more complicated, and at least two prominent potential bidders, private equity groups Bain Capital and CVC Capital Partners, dropped out of the process. Sycamore Partners had also expressed interest in Boots earlier in the race, people with knowledge of the matter have said.