Billionaire Issa brothers in £440m German petrol chain bid

EG Group, owned by billionaire brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa, is buying a 285-strong chain of German petrol station forecourts in a €485m (£440m) deal.

The move will extend the company's 6,000-strong petrol station empire across the UK and Europe.

In October, EG Group agreed to buy Asda in a deal that valued the UK supermarket chain at £6.8bn.

The Asda deal is being examined by competition authorities and is also subject to approval by regulators

Shortly after the Asda deal was announced, the Blackburn-based Issa brothers were both made CBEs.

Fast-growing EG was founded by the Issa brothers in 2001, initially called Euro Garages and expanding out from a single site in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Last month, it moved to buy Caffe Nero's 650-strong chain - a move dismissed by that company as "opportunistic". It has already established brand partnerships with the likes of Starbucks and KFC.

EG said the new outlets in Southern Germany, which it is buying from OMV Deutschland, would expand its presence in that country.

It already operates sites there under the Esso fuel brand.

Earlier this year, questions were raised about the company's finances after EG Group's auditor, Deloitte, suddenly quit in October and was replaced by KPMG.

EG Group said the auditor had signed a "clean audit" for EG Group's 2019 financial accounts and there had been "no disagreements on any auditing or accounting matters".