Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. announced it entered into a definitive agreement with Sycamore Partners to be acquired for $23.7 billion. Financing plans have not been disclosed. The transaction stated an intention to divest the company?s equity interest in VillageMD and pay up to $3 per share to shareholders following the sale or approximately $2.5 billion. We anticipate the transaction to be funded with a mix of equity and debt and that the new financial sponsor, similar to our view of other private equity sponsors, will likely increase leverage to maximize its return on equity in a finite holding period. We therefore placed all our ratings, including the ?BB-? issuer credit rating, on CreditWatch with negative implications. We plan to resolve
