Asda planning £450m swoop for Co-op’s petrol forecourt business

According to Sky News, Asda is the leading contender to buy the mutual's fuel retailing arm, which includes a sizeable convenience operation. Sky cited sources as saying that a deal could be struck as soon as this week, although they cautioned that parties other than Asda remained interested in the Co-op assets.

If Asda does win the auction, it would take the privately owned supermarket chain deeper into an area of Britain's food retailing market which has historically been elusive.

Asda, which was bought by the billionaire Issa brothers and TDR Capital last year for £6.8bn, has a convenience format called Asda on the Move, but is a bit-part player in that market compared to the like of Tesco and J Sainsbury. The Issa brothers and TDR also own European fuel retailer EG Group.

People close to the Co-op process told Sky that it was Asda, and not EG Group, that was in talks to buy the assets.

Sky News revealed last week that the Co-op was working with bankers at Rothschild to explore a sale of its estate of roughly-130 petrol forecourt sites.