UK supermarket Asda raises $196 million to help pay down debt

LONDON (Reuters) – Struggling British supermarket group Asda has raised an additional loan of 155 million pounds ($196 million) to help it pay back debt due in the next two years, it said on Wednesday.

Asda, Britain’s third largest grocer, said the loan, alongside a similar amount of cash from its balance sheet, will address 310 million pounds of debt due to mature in 2025 and 2026.

The move, following on from a 3.2 billion pound refinancing in May, pushes out all of Asda’s near-term debt maturities into the next decade, giving management breathing space to engineer a recovery.

It is the first significant development since veteran retailer Allan Leighton returned to Asda as executive chairman last month, more than two decades after he served as CEO when he turned around the business before selling it to Walmart.

Asda is now owned by private equity firm TDR Capital and Mohsin Issa, though Walmart retains a 10% stake.

Walmart’s stake in preference shares has a value of around 500 million pounds in Asda’s books. It accrues interest and will be worth about 900 million pounds when it matures in 2028, according to an Asda spokesperson.

Asda has been losing market share to rivals, including industry leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury’s, according to monthly data.

Last month, Asda reported a 4.8% fall in third quarter to end-September like-for-like sales and warned that measures in the new Labour government’s budget would cost the group 100 million pounds a year in extra costs.

Asda’s net debt was 3.8 billion pounds at end-September.

“Asda remains focussed on prudently managing the capital structure in the long-term,” it said on Wednesday.

($1 = 0.7895 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)