LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Britain's leading health and beauty retailer Boots Co Plc. is on Thursday expected to announce the sale of its Halfords car parts and bicycle store chain to private equity group CVC Europe for over 350 million pounds ($550 million), the Financial Times reported.
The price is about 50 million pounds-100 million pounds lower than the high street retailer had hoped, reflecting a near-28 percent fall in the FTSE All-Share index since it announced plans to "demerge" the business on April 17, the newspaper said.
A Boots spokesman declined to comment on the report.
CVC officials were not immediately available for comment.
The FT said the sale had yet to clear final hurdles after a day of market volatility that saw the FTSE 100 down more than 232 points at one stage.
Boots and its adviser, Deutsche Bank, have been in talks with CVC, which was granted exclusivity last month, to finalise details of the deal ahead of the Boots annual meeting on Thursday, the newspaper said.
Boots initially said it wanted to demerge the business by offering shareholders free shares in a separately listed Halfords. But Halfords attracted interest from private equity firms.