Baker & McKenzie has taken the lead role for Alliance Boots on its £375m acquisition of two major retail pharmacy networks in Latin America.

London-based corporate finance partner Helen Bradley is acting for Alliance Boots on the purchase of Farmacias Benavides and Farmacias Ahumada, comprising the pharmacies' businesses in Mexico and Chile. Bradley is being supported by associate Stefan Kecman.

The target companies were advised by a team led by corporate partner Francisco Fuentes Ostos of Mexican law firm Mijares Angoitia Cortes y Fuentes.

With combined revenues of £835m and 1,400 stores in Latin America, the chains are the third largest pharmacies in the Mexico and Chile markets.

The deal – which is expected to conclude in the third quarter of 2014 – sees Alliance Boots make an all cash tender offer for the outstanding shares of Farmacias Ahumada, which is listed on the Santiago Stock Exchange.

"This acquisition will give Alliance Boots a major presence in the attractive Latin American market, one of our priority areas for investment," said Stefano Pessina, the executive chairman of Alliance Boots, owner of the Boots brand in the UK.

Alliance Boots is owned by private equity house Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Walgreens, which took their stakes in the business in 2007 and 2012 respectively.

For the original £9.7bn buyout in 2007, KKR and Pessina turned to Clifford Chance and Simpson Thacher, while Walgreens' 45% share acquisition in 2012 was counselled by Allen & Overy and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.