// Asda owners the Issa Brothers are closing in on a deal worth £650m to sell off the supermarket’s property empire
// NYC investor Realty Income Corporation is said to be close to buying about 25 Asda stores on leases of up to 20 years
The billionaire Issa brothers are on the cusp of successfully selling off a piece of Asda’s property portfolio to a US investor in a deal worth £650m, according to The Times.
Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who bought the supermarket from Walmart back in 2020 with the private equity firm TDR Capital, are targeting sale and leaseback transactions for the grocer’s estate in a bid to minimise its hefty debt pile amid soaring interest rates.
The title reported that following a “competitive” bidding process, the New York-based investor Realty Income Corporation is close to buying about 25 Asda stores on leases of up to 20 years.
The price tag equates to a net initial yield of about 6.5%
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A sale and leaseback of Asda properties could solve the problem of reducing interest payments but could risk another of paying higher rent.
The Issa brothers have also been looking to reduce the growing debt burden of their EG Group.
Back in March EG Group sold 415 store assets on the US east coast in a sale and leaseback deal worth $1.5bn.
Commenting on the sale, co-chief executive Zuber Issa said: “[The] announcement demonstrates the progress we continue to make to put in place a robust capital structure for the medium term that will underpin our long-term strategy and represents an important first step in this process.”
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20 Comments. Leave new
On a tangent, I notice that Asda’s petrol is now 5 to 6 p per litre dearer than local garages, where they used to be the cheapest.
Those 2 are CROOKS.
There gambling on the future of thousands of workers jobs because they overstretched there empire and are now being crushed under there mountain of debt
What about the little people who work in these stores.. not one mention from them about these people…
No interest at all in the Asda name just to line their pockets with more of others hard earned money ….total disregard/disrespect for planning or any rules or regulations .
They have no respect for hard working colleagues just only to look good on themselves but could come all crashing down yet
So, was it always about asett stripping?
Yes.
Yep. The issa brothers morals are partly why I’m leaving asda..
It looks like, should have never been sold to them, customers will pay in the long run, the same goes for Morrisons
Slime Philip Green Textbook approach to business. They are overstretched.
Hopefully it will be the beggining of the doenfall of these 2.they have no respect for planning laws or anything
Well they are all the same, I dealt with people like them in Bradford never satisfied, always wanted more but wouldn’t pay for it.
Learn to spell first before going on a racist rant. The truth mick not the colour of your choice. Try Aldi it’s German
Jealous ? Or hatred because they are from Asian background ? Typical underhanded Brit way of talking
Purely and simply asset stripping – much the same as happened at Debenhams.
And this useless government just sits idly by and does nothing.
They’ll soon be nothing left of asda as it’ll all be sold off to pay the debts
Hopefully these two will go bust and either walmart or someone else.
Yes it’s all about asett stripping and the people that work for ASDA will be the one’s that pay the price for all this incompetence. Bring back wall*mart please
That’s what private equity does…….Lets see if asda and morrisons go the same way as debenhams