Issa brothers’ Asda ownership under threat after affair causes strain on relationship

The Issa brothers’ ownership of Asda as well as the relationship between the two has been threatened after Mohsin Issa’s engagement to top accountant Victoria Price as reported in This is Money.

The brothers from Blackburn have endured a strained relationship as of late which has resulted in Zuber threatening to sell his majority stake in the supermarket so he can focus on his other company EG Group.

While growing debts wouldn’t have helped the connection between the two, the affair between Mohsin and one of the UK’s top tax experts, Victoria Price, is the main cause of the ongoing rift.

Their affair was revealed when followers of Price saw that she posted a video of herself wearing a large diamond engagement ring on LinkedIn.

Whilst the ring is said to be worth £50,000, it will only be used for ‘everyday’ wear with Price’s real ring is reported to have cost £1 million.

In early February, the engaged couple finally went public about their involvement which has sparked questions about the future of Asda, which is laden with more than £4 billion of debt.

Price, formerly a tax partner at EY, first met Mohsin in 2016 which is two years before she presented the Issas with an Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The affair was 'a slow burner', due to both of them being married at the time yet began to get more serious in 2022 when Price divorced her second husband.

By that time the Issas had bought Asda, whose auditors were EY.

Red flags were raised at EY with Price being a tax partner at a firm that checked Asda's accounts, while romantically involved with a client.

Price had to explain work-related benefits that were not given by EY such as taking her sons to the British Grand Prix as well as her eldest son, now 23, becoming a supervisor at a local Asda store.

Price's lawyers maintain that she never worked on Asda business, was not a personal tax advisor and disclosed her relationship with Mohsin to EY 'at the outset'.

The day before Price left EY, the firm resigned as Asda’s auditors stating that it was a mutual agreement due to 'timetable requirements' of the audit.

It came as a huge surprise when the brothers finalised their takeover of Asda worth over £5 million three years ago. 

Since then, Asda has been struggling under the leadership of the Issas, losing market share to German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Meanwhile, rising interest rates have increased Asda's borrowing burden.