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Pets at Home Group PLC (LON:PETS) announced it is selling off five specialist referral practices to veterinary practice Linnaeus Group for up to £100mln.
Linnaeus will pay an initial £80mln in cash on completion, scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, and another £20mln based on milestones.
READ: Pets at Home acquires veterinary telehealth provider The Vet Connection for £15mln
Four of the sites are located in England and one is in Scotland.
“For our First Opinion Joint Venture Partners and Retail colleagues, the disposal allows realignment of financial and operational resource to support them in doing even more for our customers and their pets,” said chief executive Peter Pritchard in a release.
“For our shareholders, the disposal proceeds provide the Group with additional resource to accelerate growth across our customer-focused pet care platform.”
The pet products retailer is focusing its resources on customer-facing activities across its online platform, 451 stores and 440 First Opinion veterinary operations.
In fact, the FTSE 250 group acquired independent veterinary telehealth provider The Vet Connection on Monday to expand its digital services.
“We like the Pets strategy which mixes the products and services and the self-help levers available to the company, through increased personalisation from data from the VIP loyalty club,” analysts at Shore Capital commented.
Shares dipped 1% to 414.2p early on Tuesday.
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