Asda used asset sales to fund EG acquisition
Asda’s £2.28bn takeover of Eg Group’s UK and Ireland business is being funded by the sale of a number of its assets.
It was originally believed that the supermarket retailer’s owners, the billionaire Issa brothers, would be providing £450m of funding. However the cash is now expected to come from asset sales, according to The Times.
The £450m in equity is believed to come from a £1.7bn sales of 27 Asda warehouses to Blackstone in sale-and-leaseback deal in 2021.
Mohsin and Zuber Issa acquired the supermarket giant in 2020.
The merger sees Asda acquire an estate of around 350 petrol stations and over 1,000 food-to-go locations.
Asda said the acquisition will create combined revenues of nearly £30bn, serving around 21 million customers weekly.
Some critics have argued that the deal is being used to shift debt from EG Group as interest rates continue to rise.