Indian-Origin Brothers Buy UK Supermarket Giant Asda

Indian-origin billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa have won the bid to buy the British supermarket chain Asda from its American owner Walmart Inc.

On Friday, Walmart confirmed that EG Group, controlled by Issa brothers and TDR Capital, a private equity firm, have together agreed to buy Asda for £6.8 billion ($8.8 billion).

The low-profile brothers are receiving attention from the media after the deal was announced.

The Issas, whose parents moved to the UK from Gujarat in the 1970s, started their business with a single petrol forecourt in Greater Manchester in 2001. Their business, the EG Group, now owns more than 5,200 petrol stations in the US and Europe and employs over 33,000 people.

Their rapid expansion came as major oil companies sold off or closed their High Street petrol outlets to concentrate on production and refining.

The supermarket deal, follows an auction process for Asda over several months and returns the 71-year-old supermarket company back into British ownership after 21 years, a development welcomed by UK chancellor Rishi Sunak.

"Great to see Asda returning to majority UK ownership for the first time in two decades today," Sunak said on Twitter.

Asda has already been retailing in three of EG's forecourts on a trial basis and will expand to more EG outlets.