The US supermarket giant is optimising its activity portfolio by selling 71 the 71-year-old UK supermarket group Asda to UK entrepreneurs involved in the petrol station business. Walmart bought the group in 1999 for a €7,39bn value, and is now selling it 21 years later for a total amount of €7,5bn. It had previously looked at merging it with Sainsbury, but this move was blocked on competition grounds. The new owners expect to invest €1bn over the next 3 years into revamping Asda and upgrading it to directly compete with German supermarkets Lidl and Aldi in the UK and continental Europe.

Walmart Sells U.K. Arm Asda To Britain’s Issa Brothers And Private Equity For $8.8 Billion

Asda bought by billionaire Issa brothers in £6.8bn deal