Asda tycoons’ private jets flew to the Caribbean 50 times, data reveals

The private jets of Asda’s billionaire owners, the Issa brothers, flew between London and the Caribbean more than 50 times over a two-and-a-half-year period, City A.M. can reveal.

Zuber and Mohsin Issa, who co-own Asda and the forecourt business EG Group, borrowed £39m from their petrol station empire to fund their purchase of the two aircraft.

The arrangement prompted scrutiny from MPs amid concerns Asda’s complex structure and high debts stopped it keeping costs lower during the cost of living crisis.

Darren Jones, chair of parliament’s business and trade select committee, wrote to Mohsin in September with a range of questions about the unsecured loans.

Now, data shared with City A.M. by Flightradar24 reveals the various locations the planes flew to.

The Bombardier Global 6000 and Bombardier Challenger 350 flew nearly 1,000 times to and from London airports between December 2020 and July 2023.

Both are personally owned by Zuber and Mohsin through two Isle of Man-based companies, Clear Sky LP and Clear Sky 2 LP, which received the loans from EG Group.

Alongside Mohsin, Zuber and EG Group, other travellers may have used the jets by charter. Any profit from renting them out would go to the brothers as opposed to EG Group, according to the Financial Times.

EG Group has said previously it “occasionally” charters aircraft from the Clear Sky companies, primarily to “facilitate secure travel to international business meetings” and “support the effective management of our in-country operations.”

Many of the flights were to tropical hotspots, including 51 trips between London airports and Caribbean islands ranging from Barbados to Grenada and Saint Martin.

Some 24 flights were taken between London and Ibiza and 17 to and from London and Malaga. Other sunny destinations included Tenerife, Corfu and Cancun.

It is ultimately unclear who was on the planes for any of these trips.  

Louis Wilson, head of fossil fuels investigations at NGO Global Witness, said: “We can prevent the worst effects of the climate crisis without going back to the stone ages, but not if we let billionaires use private jets like taxis.”

An EG Group spokesperson stressed the private jets are owned separately by the Issa brothers’ Clear Sky companies, which are able to “charter the aircraft to third parties for flights.”

“Any use of the jets by EG Group for business purposes are appropriately recorded and accounted for. We cannot comment on third-party usage,” they added.

A source close to EG Group said that the flights to tropical destinations did not relate to use by the business.

EG Group declined to provide a breakdown of which trips related to the company and which ones were related to the brothers’ personal use. The Issa brothers and Asda declined to comment.

The Financial Times previously reported that some £33m of the loans used to fund the aircraft were taken out of EG Group interest-free.

Addressing those claims, the spokesperson added: “As we have previously stated, loans to the Clear Sky companies have been provided at rates comparable to the average commercial rate of interest, are fully disclosed in the EG Group accounts and continue to be so.”

The tycoons have spent years building up a sprawling retail empire with the help of the private equity company TDR Capital.

In 2021, TDR and the Issa brothers bought Asda from Walmart in a debt-heavy deal, which valued the company at £6.8bn. TDR has faced scrutiny alongside other private equity firms, which took advantage of low-interest rates for many years by buying up companies using debt.

In October, Asda bought EG Group’s UK and Ireland’s forecourt operations for £2.3bn, at a time when MPs were raising questions over the structure of the business and its debt pile.

Darren Jones’ letter to Mohsin in September flagged concerns that “the complex company structure within which Asda sits… may restrict your ability to help meet cost of living pressures on your customers.”

On the private jet debacle, he asked: “Did TDR Capital LLC know about the decision? Were EG Group bondholders told? If interest has since been added to these loans, what is that rate of interest? Have the proceeds of sale of EG Group by Asda been used to pay off these loans, and therefore purchase the private jets in question?”

Mohsin defended Asda’s corporate structure and high debt in a December committee hearing.