DIVORCE – The billionaire co-owner of Asda has left his wife of thirty years and is engaged to a high-flying accountant who used to work at the grocer’s auditor.
News of the relationship between Mohsin Issa and Victoria Price follows speculation that it has caused a major rift between Mr Issa and his brother and business partner Zuber.
Mr Issa is said to have moved out of the family compound near Blackburn and into a nearby mansion, which he bought for £18.2million in 2022.
How he met his new Fiancée
Father-of-two Mr Issa, 52, met Ms Price, 41, at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester in 2018 when she presented him and his brother with an entrepreneur of the year award at a ceremony.
The award was sponsored by Big Four accountancy firm EY, where Ms Price was a partner specialising in tax.
The Issa brothers made their fortune in petrol station retailing, founding EG Group – initially called Euro Garages – in 2001.
In 2021 they led a £6.8billion buyout of Asda.
But MPs investigating the deal questioned their ‘opaque’ accounts and ownership structure, and raised concerns over Mohsin Issa’s lack of experience in food retailing.
He is understood to be in process of divorcing his wife, Shamim, whom he married three decades ago.
They have two children in their twenties; daughter Mariya and son Sauban.
Why she Divorced her Second Husband
Ms Price divorced her second husband, Alastair Nuttall, in December 2021, citing irreconcilable differences.
She had met him in 2015 when they both worked at EY’s Manchester office.
He helped raise her two children from previous relationships.
How Issa and the Accountant Unfolded
The accountant began working at EY in 2006, rising through the ranks to become a partner heading up its private tax unit.
Her relationship with Mr Issa raised questions of a conflict of interest, as he was the director of a firm, Asda, being audited by EY.
But lawyers for the couple have stressed that Ms Price never worked on the Asda audit and made ‘all appropriate disclosures’ to its ethics and compliance committee.
The Affair was Disclosed
Her affair with Mr Issa was also disclosed, they added.
Ms Price left EY last July – the day after the firm resigned as Asda’s auditor.
EY said they did so after the supermarket bought EG Group’s UK business a month earlier, citing the increased scale and complexity of the business.
Ms Price recently took up a high-powered job with management consultants Alvarez & Marsal, posting on LinkedIn this week that she was on an induction course in Florida.
According to the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, the Issa brothers have a combined net worth of more than £5billion. The feud between them has resulted in Mohsin running Asda and Zuber taking charge of the rest of the EG Group.
About ASDA
Asda is Britain’s third-largest supermarket but has been losing market share to Aldi and Lidl.Saddled with debts of over £4billion, it has spent nearly two years looking for a chief executive after Roger Burnley quit following the brother’s buyout.
The billionaire Issa brothers and the rise and rise of EG Group
Brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa founded EG Group in 2001, one of Europe‘s largest independent fuel retailers.
The company began as one petrol station that the brothers ran in Bury, Greater Manchester.
It then became Euro Garages, with locations across the UK, before private equity giant TDR Capital came onboard.
The business then became EG group, and expanded into Europe.
The EG Group has acquired brands including Cooplands, Cumberland Farms, Go Fresh, Leon and Loaf ‘N Jug.
The Issa brothers separately bought supermarket giant Asda with TDR Capital.
The billionaire brothers agreed to buy the Co-op group’s petrol stations for £600million in 2022.
Co-op, known for its supermarket chains and funeral care operations, said that offloading its petrol forecourts will allow it to focus on its convenience business as well as raising important cash for the business.
For Asda, the move is part of its plans to become ‘the UK‘s second largest supermarket’ and to move further into the country’s convenience store market.
Asda will pay £438million in cash and take on around £162million of lease liabilities as part of the deal, with the final amount set to be confirmed on completion later this year.
