Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa insists no rift with brother

MOHSIN ISSA, the billionaire co-owner of Asda, has insisted there is no rift between him and his brother Zuber despite the latter’s attempts to offload a stake in the chain.

In a rare interview, Mohsin claimed they were on good terms and speak daily, and they get on “exceptionally well”. It comes after long-running speculation about tensions between the brothers, who bought Asda in a debtfuelled £6.8bn deal in 2021.

The Telegraph, which first reported talk of a rift, reported last month that Zuber had appointed buyout specialists to explore selling his 22.5pc Asda stake.

Sources at the time said this was part of his plan to focus increasingly on EG Group, the pair’s petrol station empire.

Mohsin said that the pair “have been on a journey” and have a “long way still to go”. Questions over the relationship with Zuber coincided with comments around Mohsin potentially stepping back from the day-to-day running of

Asda. He said that he was “getting to a point” where he wanted to hire a new boss. However, he claimed to be carrying out a “reset” of the grocer before appointing a chief executive, after Asda lost market share to the discounters.

Asda, the UK’s third-largest supermarket, has struggled to retain market share after high inflation pushed households to discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Asda’s market share has fallen from 14.2pc at the beginning of 2023 to 13.8pc last month, according to Kantar.

Mohsin said: “We’re in a transition where we’re evolving but we’re also investing significantly. Market share will fluctuate over a period of time.”

The supermarket is currently lagging behind all major rivals on sales growth after growing by just 1.9pc year on year.

Mohsin’s comments come after industry sources suggested Asda may struggle to find a chief executive while Mohsin is at the helm.

“Mohsin is not a backseat driver,” a source previously told The Telegraph.

“They need to figure out his role.”