LONDON (ShareCast) - Supermarket chain J Sainsbury is raising £445m via a placing and offering of convertible bonds to speed up growth and take advantage of the weak property market.
It will pull in £255m from a placing being
run by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:
MS -
news) and UBS (Virt-X:
UBSN.VX -
news) . The bookbuild process has already begun and prices will be announced later. Another £190m will come from the offer of convertible bonds due 2014.
Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY.L - news) 's wants to increase its planned gross space growth over the next two years from 10% to 15%, adding 2.5 million sq ft of additional selling space by March 2011.
"The fund raising announced today will provide us with the financial flexibility to take advantage of current opportunities to grow our business further and faster," said chief executive Justin King.
"We can speed up our growth in areas of lower market share, maintain the strength of our balance sheet and invest in the long-term growth of the business."
In a a separate statement, the retailer reported a 7.8% hike in like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT for the 12 weeks to 13 June.
Total sales for first quarter were up 3.2%, or 7.6% excluding fuel, while like-for-like sales for the period rose 2.5% and 7% respectively.
It will also buy nine stores from the Co-op for a total of £29m. It bought 24 Co-op stores in March for £83m.
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