Employee-owned John Lewis Partnership said it is raising £50m through a retail bond issue aimed at customers.
John Lewis Partnership, which owns supermarket Waitrose and Britain’s biggest department store by sales, has raised finance through bond markets before, but the “partnership” bond is the first time that it has let its customers invest.
The bond will be available to 1.5m cardholders and 70,000 staff, or “partners”.
The launch comes ahead of its 2010 results, which are expected to reveal the Partnership’s profits rose 15% to about £350m.
Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “The Partnership Bond issue is in keeping with HM Treasury’s desire to develop non-bank lending channels to help improve macroeconomic resilience in the longer term.
“We want to explore alternative ways of raising funds as part of the Partnership’s borrowing programme, and to reach out to the retail investor.”
