The Issa brothers – Mohsin and Zuber – have decided to break up their business empire by selling part of their holding in the Asda (ASDA) supermarket. They bought it from Walmart (WMT) in 2021 for £6.8bn, but now Zuber Issa has agreed to a deal to sell his 22.5% stake in the chain to private equity firm TDR Capital for £500m.
Billionaire Issa Brothers Break Up Their Asda Holdings
This will lead to TDR gaining control of the third-biggest supermarket in the UK as it now holds 67.5% of the ASDA shares. Mohsin will retain his 22.5% stake and Walmart will still own 10% of the company.
The brothers made their fortune from founding and then building up the EG Group petrol forecourts business in Bury. They hit the news headlines in 2021 when they bought Asda together, but since then Zuber has taken a step away from EG and now Asda. Mohsin will remain in charge at EG, with Zuber stepping down from his role as co-chief executive.
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In 2023, Asda bought the majority of the British petrol stations owned by the EG Group, which was a deal worth £2.3bn. It was announced this week that the rest of their sites will be bought by Zuber at a cost of £228m. He will now concentrate on setting up a new business running those forecourts that he bought from the EG Group.
A statement from the supermarket giant stated:
With more than 18 million customers a week, Asda is a highly cash-generative business and this underpins the supermarket’s ability to pay down debt while continuing to invest in colleagues and new customer propositions.
