Issa brothers offer to sell petrol stations to seal Asda takeover

The Issa brothers have offered to offload 27 petrol stations as they seek regulatory approval for their £6.8bn acquisition of supermarket chain Asda.

Last month, the Competition and Markets Authority warned of potentially higher petrol prices because of the deal. Billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa acquired Asda with private equity firm TDR Capital last year. But the brothers and TDR also own EG Group, which operates 395 petrol stations in the UK. Asda operates 323 petrol stations.

At the time, the CMA - which launched a phase 1 probe into the deal in December - highlighted local competition concerns in relation to the supply of road fuel in 36 areas across the UK, and the supply of auto-LPG in one other area.

But on Wednesday, the CMA confirmed that the brothers and TDR had offered undertakings which involved divesting 27 EG Group petrol stations.

It said: "The CMA considers that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered, or a modified version of them, might be accepted by the CMA."

The CMA now has 40 days to respond to the proposal.

In a statement, the brothers and TDR said: "As is usual in cases such as these, the CMA now has a period of 40 days to work through the detail of the proposed divestitures and therefore we are restricted in the level of information we are able to provide on specific sites.

"However, we have been comforted by the significant interest we have already received from potential buyers during the process.

"Over the coming months, we are confident that we will be able to agree a sale to suitable operators to take over all identified sites, and we wills hare more information in due course."