KKR gets Alliance Boots - finally

Posted Apr 24th 2007 12:38PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Private Equity

Over the past week, there's been a big battle for the control of Alliance Boots, which is the biggest pharmacy chain in the UK.

Billionaire Guy Hands broke up a bid from KKR and Stefano Pessina (who is also a billionaire). As a result, Alliance's stock price went into a tizzy.

But, it does look like there is a lot of potential for Alliance, in terms of cost cutting and expansion opportunities. So why not pay a little extra?

That's what KKR did today, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal [paid service].

The new bid? It's a cool $22.2 billion. As far as I can tell, it's a pretty good deal for shareholders. It comes to roughly a 40% premium.

And Hands also thinks so. He said that he has abandoned his pursuit of Alliance.

Now, it's up to KKR to figure things out.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Tags: Alliance Boots, AllianceBoots, Guy Hands, GuyHands, KKR, StefanoPessina