India, Oct. 7 -- Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) has entered into agreements to partner with Wittington Investments, the holding company of the Weston family based in Canada, to acquire The Boots Group, a pharmacy and health and beauty retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland, for a total purchase price of approximately $8.9 billion. The transaction does not include Boots businesses in Germany and Mexico.
Also, Fairfax entered into an equity commitment letter pursuant to which it has agreed to provide, or cause an affiliate of it to provide, up to approximately $2.3 billion for the purposes of satisfying the purchase price to be paid for Boots. Following the closing of the deal, it is expected that Fairfax will own 50% of the equity ...