The billionaire Issa brothers have successfully offloaded numerous convenience stores in the United States as part of their ongoing efforts to reduce their debts. Their retail and petrol forecourt empire, EG Group, recently announced that it has sold 63 locations in Kentucky and Tennessee. The deal was struck with Casey's General Stores, a company listed on the US stock exchange. The specific details of the transaction were not made public.
Subsequent to a prior agreement in March, where EG Group divested 415 store assets in the US to Realty Income, a real estate company, in a $1.5 billion deal, EG Group has now sold a further set of convenience stores. This recent transaction involved the sale of 63 sites in Kentucky and Tennessee to Casey's General Stores.
Notably, EG Group will lease back the assets it sold to Realty Income at an annual rental fee of $103 million. This move was part of EG Group's strategy to reduce its overall net leverage through a combination of debt reduction and generating free cash flow.
In May, the Issa brothers achieved a significant milestone by finalising their plan to merge EG Group's UK petrol forecourt operations with Asda in a deal worth £2.3 billion. EG Group anticipates that this merger will substantially decrease their total net debt from $9.801 billion in March 2023 to $5.4 billion post-merger.