- Monday, March 27, 2023
Real estate-focused investment bank Eastdil has reportedly been roped in to lead the process.
By: Shubham Ghosh
The UK’s EG Group has reportedly roped in investment bankers to market a number of parcels of US assets with Eastdil, a real-estate investment bank, leading the process.
According to a report by Sky News that cited sources, the transactions were most likely to be structured as sale-leaseback deals and could raise a substantial amount in the near future.
The Lancashire-based EG Group trades from over 6,500 sites across the world.
In its latest quarterly update to bondholders, the EG Group said the management aims at reducing total net leverage through reduction of debt and generation of free cash flow and that the group is exploring deleveraging options actively.
A source close to the company told the outlet that firm decisions were yet to be taken about any particular transaction.
EG was founded in 2001 by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, and it has seen a steady growth into one of Britain’s biggest convenience retailers, thanks to a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
The Issa brothers later partnered with TDR Capital to boost EG’s growth.
TDR Capital is the private equity firm behind large firms such as David Lloyd Leisure and Stonegate, the UK’s biggest pubs operator.
In 2021, the businessmen brothers jointly bought supermarket chain Asda with TDR.
EG has operations in as many as 10 countries, including Australia, and an international property empire said to be worth around $10 billion (£8.07 billion).
The company entered the American convenience store market five years ago when it acquired Cincinnati-based The Kroger Co.’s c-store network for $2.15 billion (£1.73 billion), getting a base of 762 c-stores functional in 18 states, Convenience Store News reported.
The group had previously explored a sale that could have been valued at roughly $15 billion (£12.1 billion) in 2021 fall, as CSN reported earlier. The company also considered going public at the time, it was learnt.
It also considered a merger with Laval, Canada-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. Last year, a Wall Street Journal report indicated that the two retailers across the Atlantic were exploring a possible tie-up and even traded proposals that put the UK-based group’s value around $16 billion (£12.9 billion) then.
EG Group’s US arm based in Westborough, Massachusetts, runs over 1,700 convenience and gas stores in 31 states in the country and its banner in the US has the likes of Cumberland Farms, Certified Oil, Fastrac, KwikShop, Loaf n’ Jug, Minit Mart, QuikStop, Sprint and Turkey Hill.
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