Asda is a British supermarket chain, headquartered in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The company was founded in 1949 when the supermarket owning Asquith family merged with the Associated Dairies company of Yorkshire. It expanded into the south of England during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, it was acquired by the American retail giant Walmart for $10 billion.
Since then, Walmart has been trying to offload Asda due to its underperformance in the UK market. In 2018, Walmart announced its intention to sell a majority stake in Asda to the private equity firm Elliott Advisors.
However, this deal fell through and Asda has remained part of Walmart.
Asda is now the UK’s third largest supermarket chain with around 600 stores across the country. It has a market share of around 16%. However, it has been struggling in recent years due to intense competition from the likes of Aldi and Lidl. In 2019, Asda reported its first quarterly loss in nearly 30 years.
Conclusion:
It seems that Asda does not really belong to Walmart anymore, as Walmart has been trying to sell it off for a while now. Asda is also not doing very well financially, so it might be better off without Walmart.
