The billionaire Issa brothers are on the verge of selling off a chunk of Asda’s property empire to a US investor in a deal worth £650m (The Times £). Mohsin and Zuber Issa are targeting sale and leaseback transactions for the grocer’s estate to try to bring down the firm’s hefty debt pile amid soaring interest rates.
Dawood Pervez, Bestway MD and chairman of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, is calling on the government and consumers to support wholesalers by keeping local convenience stores in business (The Times £). “People do not realise how important they are, and the role they play across the UK, until they’re gone,” he said.
The UK economy eked out a return to growth in April as rising car sales and customers spending in pubs and bars helped output to recover from a wave of public sector strikes in the previous month (The Guardian).
Monthly economic output rose 0.2% in April, the Office for National Statistics estimates, after a 0.3% contraction in March. Growth in the three months to April was 0.1% (The Times £).
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