One of Asda’s petrol station sites
(Picture: PA)The brothers behind the £6.8 billion takeover of Asda will not proceed with a planned separate £750 million deal to buy the grocer’s forecourt business.
EG Group, the convenience and fuel retailer led by the Issa brothers, Zuber and Mohsin, in February agreed to acquire Asda petrol filling stations, car wash sites and some land.
EG Group is owned by the Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR Capital, who both last year unveiled a deal to buy a majority stake in grocer Asda from Walmart.
In June EG Group and Asda were allowed to share commercial information regarding the latter’s forecourt business, after competition regulators removed restrictions following the brothers and TDR’s purchase to acquire Asda got the green light.
That allowed the supermarket chain and EG Group’s teams to start sharing commercial information which had not been previously possible and has resulted in several changes to the financial evaluation of the proposed transaction.
As a result, EG said it and Asda have decided they will no longer proceed with the transaction, and it has been terminated.
A statement from EG Group said: “Key commercial initiatives between EG and Asda are already well underway including the development of plans to introduce foodservice at Asda locations and the expansion of Asda’s convenience offering, where both companies have confirmed their intention to roll-out the Asda On the Move proposition across EG’s UK forecourts. ”
These plans remain unchanged.
