Blackburn-based petrol station and convenience store giant EG Group has appointed accounting firm KPMG as its new auditor following the resignation of Deloitte.

The Financial Times newspaper claimed in a report that Deloitte resigned as EG’s auditor because of concerns over its governance and internal controls.

Privately-held EG Group was founded with a single petrol station in Bury as Euro Garages by the Issa brothers and has grown fast around the world through a series of debt-fueled deals.

EG now owns almost 6,000 petrol stations and reported over €20 billion of revenue last year, and the newspaper reported concerns that the company’s controls had not improved in line with its fast growth. 

The change of auditors comes just days after EG’s billionaire owners, the Issa brothers, bought Leeds-based Asda along with private equity group TDR Capital LLP in £6.7 billion deal.

“We are pleased to be working with KPMG going forward, and remain committed to making continued progress with our internal processes, controls and governance,” EG Group told Reuters.

“As in previous years, Deloitte signed a clean audit for EG Group’s 2019 financial statements, and there have been no disagreements on any auditing or accounting matters.”