After months of sitting on sidelined debt, Wall Street banks are gearing up for one of their biggest moves in a while—a $4.25 billion debt sale to back Sycamore Partners' acquisition of UK pharmacy chain Boots, part of a larger buyout from Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA, Financial). Goldman Sachs (GS, Financial) is leading the charge, joined by Citi (C, Financial), JPMorgan (JPM, Financial), Deutsche Bank, UBS (UBS, Financial), and Wells Fargo (WFC, Financial). According to people familiar with the matter, the deal could hit the market as early as June or July. Some of the debt may even be sold to private credit funds hungry for yield, with room to adjust the split between high-yield bonds and leveraged loans depending on investor appetite.
This isn't happening in a vacuum. The deal comes as credit markets show early signs of thawing after months of disruption tied to U.S. tariff policy under Trump. Junk bond sales are back in motion on both sides of the Atlantic, and institutional demand is picking up. Just this week, one European issuer nearly doubled its bond size at pricing—an encouraging sign for a market desperate for fresh paper. With M&A volume still subdued, the Boots transaction could attract significant interest as investors chase limited opportunities to deploy capital into large, branded deals.
Boots is just the beginning. Other sizable financings are lining up: Flutter Entertainment is marketing €2.5 billion in bonds for an Italian gaming deal, while Silver Lake is preparing a $2 billion debt sale for its Altera stake. Meanwhile, Thoma Bravo has secured a $4 billion private loan for its purchase of Boeing (BA, Financial)'s digital assets. Bottom line: the window is cracking open again—and the debt markets are watching closely.
