Boots former exec Gourlay in talks to join Holland & Barrett owner LetterOne

A former executive at the owner of Boots, Alex Gourlay, is reportedly in discussions to join the board of LetterOne, the Russia-linked vehicle which owns Holland and Barrett, according to Sky News.

Gourlay stepped down as co-chief operating officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance earlier this year, and is in advanced talks to become a non-executive director of LetterOne.

City sources said on Monday (26 September) that a formal agreement had yet to be reached but that Gourlay was likely to be one of several new board appointments that would bolster corporate governance at LetterOne.

The company is chaired by Lord Davies of Abersoch, the former trade minister and erstwhile boss of Standard Chartered, the emerging markets bank.

Launched in 2013, LetterOne was founded by a group of businessmen with links to Russia, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven.

Although LetterOne has not been sanctioned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fridman and Aven have been targeted by UK and EU sanctions. Consequently, both of their shareholdings in LetterOne have been frozen, and they can’t receive dividend income from their stakes.

Sky News said that if Gourlay’s appointment goes ahead, it would be positively received by stakeholders in Holland and Barrett, although insiders said he would be joining LetterOne’s board rather than being directly involved in the health food chain’s management.

Last week, Sky News found that LetterOne offered to buy back nearly £900m of Holland and Barrett’s debt in an effort to shore up its balance sheet.

Holland and Barrett, which trades from 800 stores in the UK and employs 8,000 people, has been owned by LetterOne since 2017, and LetterOne-owned companies employ over 100,000 people.