Asda owners, the Issa brothers are thought to be plotting an £8 billion takeover of fast-food chain, Subway.
EG Group, which is owned by Mohin and Zuber Issa and TDR Capital, already has Subway restaurants within some of its more than 6,300 petrol stations – 340 of which are in the UK.
“EG Group have felt for a while that Subway treated them the same way as other franchise partners and their massive growth hadn’t been appreciated. So what better way to show who’s boss than owning them,” a source told The Sun.
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Another source said that the deal “would make good sense.”
This would add to the billionaire brother’s and EG Group’s current retail portfolio, which includes food chain Leon and KFC’s biggest franchise, as well as the Group’s relations with Krispy Kreme, Greggs, Cinnabon and Starbucks.
In 2021, the brothers purchased Big 4 grocer Asda in a £6.8bn deal and in January, they weresaid to be considering a merger between the supermarket giant and their UK petrol forecourts, that would value the business at £12 billion.
Yesterday (27 March), The Times said Mohin and Zuber were ‘racing’ to complete the deal by the end of April.
If this goes ahead, the business will have more than 581 supermarkets, 700 petrol forecourts and 100 convenience stores in the UK.