The billionaire Issa brothers' EG Group has pulled out of its planned £750mn acquisition of Asda's forecourt business. The Lancashire-headquartered company, which is backed by TDR Capital, had only recently agreed a deal to sell almost 30 of its own petrol stations sites to appease concerns raised by the Competition and Markets Authority.
That announcement was made at the start of October after fears were first brought up by the watchdog in May. The group then offered to sell a number of sites to address the CMA's concerns, which was then accepted in June.
The Issa brothers, along with TDR Capital, snapped up Asda in a £6.8bn deal towards the end of 2020. An EG Group statement said: "On February 3, 2021, EG Group announced that it had agreed to acquire certain assets of Asda.
"On June 16, 2021, both the ongoing restrictions imposed under UK competition law and the subsequent Competition and Markets Authority on the acquisition of Asda by TDR Capital and the Issa brothers were lifted.
"This allowed Asda and EG Group’s teams to start sharing commercial information relating to EG’s acquisition of the Asda Forecourt Business which had not been previously possible and has resulted in several changes to the financial evaluation of the proposed transaction. "As a result, EG and Asda have decided they will no longer proceed with the transaction, and it was terminated as of October 18, 2021.
