Billionaire Issa brothers who are buying the supermarket chain Asda are proposing to sell off 27 of their current petrol sites to help them to buy company for £6.8bn.
The UK’s Competition Market Authority (CMA) warned last month that the takeover could lead to higher fuel prices in 36 locations.
The CMA said on Wednesday that the Issa brothers who are behind EG Group who are a forecourt giant and the private equity backer TDR Capital had proposed the divestment of 27 stations.
The competition wathcdog said there were “reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings … or a modified version might be accepted by the CMA.”
In a joint statement, the Issa 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 this process, demonstrating the strong growth potential of our forecourts and the liquidity in the market.
“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 will share more information in due course.”
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