Asda’s billionaire owners the Issa brothers borrowed an additional £7m from their petrol forecourt empire last year to repay loans taken out to buy their private jets, new documents have found.
EG Group lent the cash to personal private jet companies controlled by Mohsin and Zuber Issa last year, which are both located offshore in the Isle of Man, The Telegraph reported.
It follows the news the brothers borrowed £5.6m in 2022 to repay the debt taken out to purchase the two planes.
The payments to Clear Sky LP and Clear Sky 2 LP take the total amount owed to the forecourt’s business from £29.47m to £39.83m in 2023.
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This amount includes £31.07m of unsecured loans which the group initially gave to the brothers to purchase the jets back in 2018.
An EG Group spokesman told The Telegraph: “EG Group provided loans to the Clear Sky companies at a commercial rate of interest to service external third-party debt. All loans have been fully disclosed in the EG Group accounts, and continue to be so.
“These specific loans have been provided at rates comparable to the average commercial rate of interest, and that interest has been identified and recognised within EG Group’s finance income. These loans will be repaid in due course.”
The news comes after Zuber revealed he was planning to stand down as co-chief executive of the petrol station empire that he built last month, leaving his brother Mohsin to lead the business.
