NEW YORK, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Walgreens, an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States, behind CVS Health, is in talks to sell itself to a private-equity firm in a deal that would take the pharmacy chain off the public market after its shares have been on a downward slide for nearly a decade.
"Walgreens Boots Alliance and Sycamore Partners have been discussing a deal that could be completed early next year, assuming talks don't fall apart," reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Walgreens's market value reached a peak of over 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 but has since shrunk to around 7.5 billion dollars. Mounting pressures on both its pharmacy and retail businesses have helped send its shares down nearly 70 percent so far this year, according to the report.
"Any deal would be a big bite for Sycamore, a New York-based firm that specializes in retail and consumer investments and more recently is better known for smaller deals. The firm would likely sell off pieces of the business or work with partners," it said.
Walgreens spent more than 12 decades scaling to become one of America's most ubiquitous retailers, with its stores cementing themselves as neighborhood staples, it added. ■
