Asda accused of ‘misleading’ MPs over board

Asda has been forced to explain to MPs who sits on its board after a union accused the private equity firm that backed a £6.8billion buy-out of misleading Parliament.

The move came after the GMB tipped off business committee chairman Liam Byrne that two of TDR Capital directors had quit three of Asda’s boards before they gave evidence to MPs this week.

Citing Companies House filings, the GMB said managing partner Gary Lindsay and fellow director Manjit Dale had resigned as Asda directors on December 19. On the same day, supermarket boss Mohsin Issa, who with his brother Zuber led the controversial buy-out, appeared before MPs to defend his running of the company.

The GMB said ‘at no point’ did Lindsay or TDR ‘disclose to the committee that they were no longer board members of Asda’ despite him giving evidence as a representative of the board. In his evidence Lindsay told MPs: ‘We sit on the board, we opine on a number of different matters.’

GMB national officer Nadine Houghton said ‘this lack of transparency may raise serious questions about the evidence given to the committee’.

It also ‘potentially undermines’ a session with MPs designed to examine private equity’s ‘complex ownership and governance structures’, she added.

The Issas and TDR own Asda via a labyrinthine web of offshore companies based in Jersey, which MPs have struggled to unpick. Lindsay promised them more disclosure would be introduced, while several offshore subsidiaries would also be re-named.

Asda yesterday wrote to Byrne to clarify that TDR remains committed to Asda and that its representation on the main board of directors had not changed.

TDR partner Rob Hattrell had replaced Dale, it added. He joins Lindsay, retail veteran Stuart Rose, City grandee Alison Carnwath, the Issa brothers and a senior executive from former owner Walmart on the Asda board. However, neither Lindsay nor any other TDR director are listed as directors on Asda’s website.

Lindsay and Dale quit Asda subsidiaries as ‘part of an ordinary rationalisation of the corporate structure,’ TDR added.