Reckitt Benckiser pays ÂŁ1.93bn for medicines business
Boots has agreed the sale of its Boots Healthcare International (BHI) healthcare business to Reckitt Benckiser forÂŁ1.93 billion this morning.
The sale is conditional to shareholder and authority agreement and the move comes just days after a proposed merger between Boots and Alliance UniChem.
The sale price is higher than expected and Boots intends to return aboutÂŁ1.43 billion of the sale proceeds to shareholders.
Retail analysts commented that the BHI sale price was 'top of the range' and Boots chief executive Richard Baker said: 'Together with the announcement of the proposed merger with Alliance UniChem, this disposal allows us to focus on our plans to create a world-class pharmacy-led healthcare group.'
Reckitt, an Anglo-Dutch household products group, is said to have beaten competition for BHI from Bayer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline.
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