Holland & Barrett sold for a healthy £1.77bn
Private equity firm the Carlyle Group has received just the tonic after agreeing to a £1.77bn takeover bid for health food chain Holland & Barrett.
Holland & Barrett sold for a healthy £1.77bn
The deal would see L1 Retail assume ownership of all 1,150 stores and responsibility for 4,200 staff, which together generated £610m in revenues for 2016 following an unbroken run of 32 quarters of like-for-like growth.
Lauding its latest acquisition Stephan DuCharme, L1 Retail managing partner, said: "Holland & Barrett is a clear market leader in the UK health and wellness retail market, with attractive growth positions in other European and international markets, and growing online presence, with a leading customer loyalty programme and 10 million active cardholders.
"We believe that the company is well-positioned to benefit from structural growth in the growing £10bn health and wellness market and has multiple levers for long-term growth and value creation."
The takeover was similarly well received by Peter Aldis, chief executive of Holland & Barrett, who added: “Carlyle has been a great partner for Holland & Barrett over the last few years, investing in the brand, our people, and next-generation technology, which has driven our growth.”
L1Retail is the retail investment arm of LetterOne, founded in 2013 by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman. It is expected to take full ownership of Holland & Barrett by September 2017, subject to regulatory approval.