Issa brothers hatch £8bn plan to takeover Subway

British Indian billionaire Issa brothers are eyeing to takeover fast food chain Subway for around £8 billion, according to reports.

The Asda owners and EG Group founders- Mohsin, 51, and Zuber Issa, 50, feel that the global restaurants chain will be an 'ideal fit' for their business empire, The Sun newspaper reported quoting sources.

“EG Group have felt for a while that Subway treated them the same way as other franchise partners and their massive growth hadn’t been appreciated. So what better way to show who’s boss than owning them," a source was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Subway has nearly 37,000 restaurants across 100 different countries, which makes it one of the largest restaurant chains in the world.

There were around 2,300 Subway locations in the UK with over 1,800 in England, 202 in Scotland, 107 in Wales and 99 in Northern Ireland, as of February 2023.

Last month, Subway announced that it was looking into the possibility of selling the business. Issa brothers already have a few Subway stores in some of its more than 6,300 petrol stations across the world, including 340 in the UK.

According to the Wall Street Journal calculation, the value of Subway will be more than £8.2bn, which matches the reported bid by the brothers.

Following a £6.8bn takeover of Asda in 2021, Issa brothers' EG Group has also bought food chain Leon, bakery business Cooplands and helped to launch the UK’s first drive-thru Indian street food restaurant with Chaiiwala on Manchester Road in Bolton.

The brothers' empire includes more than 6,300 convenience, retail and petrol forecourts, mainly in Europe and the US.

Their EG Group employs more than 53,000 people, almost 20,000 of them in the UK. Last year, the group said that it planned to create nearly 23,000 more jobs over five years.

The Issa brothers were warned earlier this month that Asda's £600 million proposed deal for the Co-op's petrol station business could result in higher prices or less choice in a number of locations.

The businessmen have now proposed to sell 13 petrol stations to urge the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to back the deal.

According to reports, the brothers also attempted to acquire the likes of ASOS, Boots, McColl's and Caffè Nero, with plans later falling through.

They were ranked sixth in the Asian Rich List 2022 published by Eastern Eye, with an estimated wealth of £4.75bn