THE private equity firm that controls Asda shared £44 million among its partners last year, even as the supermarket continued to struggle with falling sales and heavy debts from its takeover three years ago, the Telegraph reported.
TDR Capital took over Asda in 2021 alongside petrol station entrepreneurs Mohsin and Zuber Issa, saddling the supermarket with £6 billion of debt. Rising interest costs have weighed heavily on its finances ever since.
TDR bought out Zuber Issa's stake in November, giving it a controlling 67.5 per cent share, with Mohsin Issa subsequently stepping down as chief executive.
Accounts filed by the London-based firm show its 17 partners divided a profit pool of £43.9m in the year to March, up from £33.6m the previous year. The highest-paid partner took home £2.9m.
Asda's market share has fallen from 14.8 per cent at the time of the takeover to 12.5 per cent in the 12 weeks to November 3. Lord Rose, who was Asda's chairman, told the Telegraph in August that the supermarket's decline had been "embarrassing."
He later took over from Mohsin Issa before TDR brought in Allan Leighton, who previously ran Asda between 1996 and 2001, as chief executive last month.
Asda is TDR's best-known investment, but the firm manages more than £12bn of assets across a broad portfolio, including private university BPP, gym chain David Lloyd and the UK franchise of Popeyes restaurants.
Not all its investments have fared well. TDR faces a potential loss of more than £300m after agreeing to hand control of Norwegian cruise company Hurtigruten to its creditors. The company's debts grew to under TDR's ownership, though it said the pandemic caused significant disruption to the business.
Closer to home, TDR pumped £250m into Stonegate, the owner of around 4,000 UK pubs including the Slug & Lettuce chain, in July, after the pub group warned of "material uncertainty" over its finances as it sought to refinance £2.2bn of debt.
TDR was founded just over 20 years ago by former bankers Manjit Dale and Stephen Robertson. American hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones backed its first fund and lent his surname to the firm's name. TDR has since raised five funds, the most recent totalling £3.5bn.
TDR Capital declined to comment.
