Asda added £1.5bn of liabilities to fund EG Group deal
The owners of Asda added an additional £1.5bn of liabilities to fund its deal to take over EG Group’s petrol stations in the UK and Ireland.
The new liabilities were not counted in the supermarket retailer’s £4.48bn headline debt figures.
The Financial Times has reported that new documents revealed that the deal was achieved through the creation of other forms of liabilities which do not count towards its debt load.
This comprised of £646m from sale-and-leaseback deals, £400m from borrowing against ground rents, as well as £401m from a shareholder loan.
These deals – which were completed last year – are in addition to a £684m loan provided by investment firm Apollo, which counted towards the retailer’s debt figures.
Last week, Asda reported that it had completed the refinancing of over £3.2bn worth of debt, pushing the majority of its maturities back to the 2030s.
Asda told The Financial Times that the structure of the deal was “clearly communicated to all financial stakeholders at the time” and that its financial reporting was “very consistent”.
Earlier this year, the supermarket said that its EG Group acquisition helped drive an adjusted EBITDA after rent of over £1bn in 2023.