In 1985, the company acquired the Peoples Drugstore chain and all subsidiaries from A. C. Israel. In 1986 the Company was acquired by the conglomerate Hanson Trust plc for £2.5billion. Divestments during the period of ownership by Hanson included Courage Brewery to Elders, Golden Wonder to Dalgety, Finlays to Arunbhai J. Patel, the wholesaling arm of Sinclair & Collis to Palmer & Harvey, Imperial Hotels and Catering to Trust House Forte and Ross Frozen Foods to United Biscuits. This also led to a dispute over pension payments to employees, as seen in "Imperial Group Pension Trust Ltd v Imperial Tobacco Ltd". In 1996, following a decision to concentrate on core tobacco activities, Hanson de-merged Imperial and it was listed as an independent company on the UK stock exchange.