Billionaire businessman Zuber Issa has acquired 85 petrol forecourts from the insolvent Prax Group through his company EG On The Move, as part of a broader effort to expand his independent retail network. The transaction, details of which have not been disclosed, will increase EG On The Move’s total number of sites to approximately 285 across the United Kingdom.

Prax Group, founded by Sanjeev Soosaipillai and his wife Arani, was an oil company comprising upstream energy assets, petrol forecourts, and the Prax Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire. The company grew from a single filling station in St Albans into a significant energy conglomerate, highlighted by its acquisition of the Lindsey refinery from TotalEnergies for $167 million in 2021. However, Prax faced financial difficulties, resulting in insolvency and the subsequent sale of its assets.

EG On The Move, launched by Issa three years ago, has been expanding its footprint in the petrol and convenience retail sector, now operating more than 215 branded food service concessions and over 55 sites equipped with fast-charging electric vehicle ports. Issa expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition, emphasizing a commitment to maintaining independent management at the acquired forecourts. He noted the company’s focus on strong partnerships with retail brand collaborators and independent commission operators to enhance site competitiveness and customer appeal.

The Issa brothers, Zuber and Mohsin, are well-known for their 2020 purchase of the supermarket chain Asda in a private equity-backed deal valued at £6.8 billion. They initially founded EG Group, formerly Euro Garages, with a single forecourt in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 2001. EG Group, which is co-owned by private equity firm TDR Capital, currently employs about 37,000 people across nine countries and is preparing for an initial public offering in New York that could value the company at $9 billion. The group’s most recent financial results showed a marked decline in pre-tax profit to $10 million from $1.4 billion in 2024, alongside a 15 percent drop in revenues to $24.2 billion.

Following Prax’s insolvency, its assets have been sold off to various buyers. The Lindsey refinery site was sold to Texas-based Phillips 66 earlier this year, which is integrating the refinery’s storage and infrastructure with its neighboring operations but not resuming full crude oil processing. In a separate transaction, Serica Energy, an AIM-listed oil and gas company, acquired Prax’s North Sea assets for $25.6 million in September 2025. Serica’s chief financial officer, Martin Copeland, acknowledged operational challenges faced by Prax at the Lindsey refinery but noted these did not affect the North Sea assets.

Before its collapse, Prax was the fifth-largest independent forecourt retailer in the UK, operating over 200 retail sites under the Harvest Energy and TotalEnergies brands. The group held exclusive rights to the TotalEnergies brand in the UK market and operated the OIL! brand, which had a network of more than 330 petrol stations across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark. Ian Woodcock, managing director of Prax Retail, described the sale of the forecourts to EG On The Move as a significant milestone in the company’s restructuring process.