Melbourne, Oct 30 - Wesfarmers Ltd, owner of Australia's second-largest supermarket chain Coles, is looking to raise up to 3 billion euros ($4 billion) in European markets through a medium-term note programme when debt markets stabilise.
The coal-to-groceries conglomerate needs to beef up its balance sheet after taking on a heavy debt burden to buy Coles and retailers Target, K-Mart and Officeworks for A$19 billion before the credit crunch started to bite.
It has nearly A$3.5 billion in debt due to be refinanced by the end of 2009 and A$5 billion due in 2010, a concern among investors given the difficulties faced by any company needing to finance debt amid the global credit crisis.
The outlook for the company is also clouded by an expected slowdown in Australian consumer spending and a retreat in coal prices.
Wesfarmers said it would use the proceeds from the notes sale to pay down existing debt and for general corporate purposes.
The group's share price jumped as much as 11 percent after it said it had prepared documentation for an offering of European medium-term notes, and ended up 6.6 percent at A$20.79, outperforming a 4 percent rise in the broader market .
Three fund managers said Wesfarmers' gain had more to do with a broader rally in resources stocks on Thursday, with the materials index up 8.3 percent, than any comfort on Wesfarmers ability to refinance its debt.
BT Investment management analyst Sondal Bensan questioned whether the company would even be able to raise 3 billion euros.
"It's all well and good to put documentation in place to try and raise money. But the process of raising the money is the challenge for everybody at the moment," he said.
Wesfarmers had difficulty earlier this year when trying to raise US$1 billion in a 5-year note offering in the United States. In the end it raised only $650 million at a higher cost than expected.
As a result, it had to turn to shareholders to raise A$2.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in a share sale in May.
"The programme documentation has been put in place so that Wesfarmers will be readily able to access funding in medium-term international debt markets as and when conditions in these markets improve," he said.
It appointed BHP Paribas to arrange the programme, with ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale named as dealers.