WESTMINSTER MPs have cast doubt on the transparency of Jersey’s accounting standards during a select committee inquiry which raised questions about the finances behind supermarket giant Asda.
Members of the Business and Trade Committee were questioning witnesses from private-equity firm TDR Capital, which bought the supermarket chain, together with billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, for £6.8bn in 2021.
UK politicians wanted to know why three-quarters of Asda’s corporate structure – likened by Labour MP Ian Lavery to “a board of snakes and ladders” – had its accounts in Jersey, which they claimed “does not have the same accounting standards as accounts filed here”. They complained that, as a result, they could not access those accounts.
Committee chair Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, repeatedly pressed Emma Gilks, deputy general counsel at TDR Capital, over Jersey’s accounting transparency standards, three times asking her whether they were “clearer or less clear” than those in the UK.
“Do you want to correct the record now, though, that accounting transparency in Jersey is not as clear as it is in the UK? I just want to give you that opportunity,” Mr Byrne said, prompting a response from TDR’s chief operating officer, Blair Thompson: “Clearly, if that is the information available to the committee, we are not aware. We are not experts in the relative standards between Jersey and the UK.”
But the committee wanted to know why TDR had chosen to establish the entities in Jersey, something which Mr Thompson said made it easier to sell firms on in due course because purchasers were not required to pay stamp duty.
“Okay, so registering in Jersey makes things easier to sell on in due course,” Mr Byrne said.
During the session the team from TDR Capital also responded to questions from the MPs on the extent of Asda’s debt, on health and safety concerns of its workers, and on its commitment to transparency.
