Fridman’s L1 Retail to buy Holland & Barrett for $2.3 billion: Reuters

(Reuters) — Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman‘s L1 Retail has agreed to buy health food and supplements chain Holland & Barrett for 1.77 billion pounds ($2.26 billion) from The Nature’s Bounty Co. and The Carlyle Group (CG.O), the companies said in a statement.

L1 Retail is expected to close the transaction by September, subject to regulatory approvals.

Private equity firm Carlyle acquired Nature’s Bounty, including Holland & Barrett, in 2010 for $3.8 billion.

The deal for Holland & Barrett, which has more than 1,300 shops in 16 countries but is focused on Britain, was first reported by the Financial Times on Sunday.

“We believe that the company is well positioned to benefit from structural growth in the growing 10 billion pound health and wellness market and has multiple levers for long term growth and value creation,” said L1 Retail Managing Partner Stephen DuCharme.

A spokesman for L1 told Reuters the company would create a board for Holland & Barrett that would include L1 Retail’s advisory board and investment team, possibly some outside non-executive directors and the chief executive and chief financial officer of the chain.

“We will create a board that features the best possible combination of skills to support the leadership team and take Holland & Barrett to the next level,” he said.

Carlyle was advised by Goldman Sachs, Houlihan Lokey, UBS, PwC, Latham Watkins and OC&C.

Reuters reported in January that Carlyle had hired Goldman Sachs to help it sell Nature’s Bounty, but that it may opt to sell Holland & Barrett separately.

Tycoon Fridman’s other investments include $200 million in ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] and UK North Sea assets.