Sycamore Partners and Boots are working with consultants on a revamp of its strategy to ready it for a flotation, according to major media. Talks with advisers have included how to focus the business and its growth plans on beauty and wellness. Sycamore might instead sell the company, as is typical after private equity buy outs.
Sycamore bought Walgreens Boots Alliance, which owned Boots, last year for more than £7 billion (or $10 billion). Sycamore spun off Boots into a standalone entity, with Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina and his family retaining a stake. Boots' pre-tax profit grew to £215 million in the year to August 2025, up from £31 million the year before, and its revenue and gross profit grew by three per cent to £192 million.
Boots has around 1,800 shops and has enjoyed bumper beauty and fragrance sales in recent years. Boots was founded as a family herbal medicine shop in Nottingham in 1849. It has previously been listed in London, as part of Alliance Boots, but became the first ever FTSE 100 company to be bought by a private equity firm in 2007.
American pharmacy Walgreens acquired a 45 per cent stake in Boots in 2012 and later made the firm a subsidiary of the Walgreens Boots Alliance. Boots would join bookselling giant Waterstones as one of London's most exciting upcoming IPOs. The exact timing of a potential IPO beyond 'next year' remains unclear, and it is unknown whether Boots will definitely list in London or be sold instead.