A consortium comprised of Apollo Global Management and Reliance Industries Ltd. has made a binding offer for the international arm of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. , Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The group’s offer values Boots at more than 5 billion pounds ($6.3 billion), one of the people said. The offer is backed by financing and could put Apollo and Reliance in pole position to buy the chain. The main competitor to the bid is a consortium of Britain’s billionaire Issa brothers and TDR Capital, but they have been considering dropping their bid due to disagreements over price. Walgreens is seeking a valuation of $7 billion for Boots, which runs more than 2,200 stores across the UK and owns private label brands including No7 Beauty Co. Walgreens shares were slightly lower premarket and are down 18% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has fallen 13.7%.
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