THE EG Group, owned by the Issa brothers, has appointed Dame Alison Carnwath, 68, as non-executive director and chairwoman of the audit committee.
She will join next month as the group attempts to allay corporate governance concerns, reported The Times.
Dame Carnwath will reunite with Lord Rose of Monewden, 71, who was named chairman of the petrol station empire last month.
Earlier, she was the chairman of Land Securities from 2008 to 2018 while Rose was a non-executive director at the property group from 2003 to 2013.
Rose said: “I joined EG in January because the shareholders asked me to develop appropriate governance for a business of this scale and Alison’s appointment further underscores the group’s commitment to establish a best-in-class governance model.”
The Jersey-registered EG Group is owned by Mohsin and Zuber Issa, billionaire businessmen from Blackburn, Lancashire, and TDR Capital, the private equity firm.
They have recently completed their £6.8 billion acquisition of Asda from Walmart, the American retail group.
The owners have financed the deal with a sale and leaseback of Asda’s warehouses, a record junk bond and the £750 million sale of Asda’s petrol business to their own EG forecourt empire.
The debt-fuelled takeover of Britain’s third largest supermarket chain has increased scrutiny of the brothers and EG, which has until recently had no independent board members, The Times report added.
In October, Deloitte resigned as EG’s auditor because of governance concerns and a lack of internal controls. It was replaced by KPMG.
