MPs question Asda about ability to meet cost of living pressures

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MPs have raised concerns that Asda's ownership structure could be limiting the supermarket's ability to support shoppers through the cost of living crisis.

Article originally published by The Guardian. Hargreaves Lansdown is not responsible for its content or accuracy and may not share the author's views. News and research are not personal recommendations to deal. All investments can fall in value so you could get back less than you invest.

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04 Sep 2023

In a letter to Mohsin Issa, one of the billionaire brothers who bought the supermarket with a private equity partner, TDR Capital, in 2020, Darren Jones, the chair of parliament’s business and trade select committee, has asked for details of the retailer’s corporate structure, capital investment and profit margins on petrol.

In the letter he also seeks details on loans from the Issas’ petrol forecourt operation, EG Group, which helped fund the buyout of Asda, the UK’s third-largest supermarket, and the purchase of two private jets for the brothers from Blackburn.

“The committee has concerns that the complex company structure within which Asda sits, and associated decisions on financing, may restrict your ability to help meet cost of living pressures on your customers,” Jones writes in the letter published on the committee’s website.

The letter comes after Asda was criticised by MPs for