// Morrisons chief financial officer Michael Gleeson has stepped down ahead of a major refinancing of the supermarket
// Morrisons owner CD&R raised £6.6 billion of loans to buy the supermarket late last year which need refinancing. However, the debt market has crashed since Russia invaded Ukraine last month
Morrisons CFO Michael Gleeson has stepped down ahead of a major refinancing for the supermarket following its takeover by Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (CD&R).
Gleeson, who has been with Morrisons for eight years, said that it was “a good time for me to take on a fresh challenge”.
He joined Morrisons in 2014 as group financial controller and rose through the ranks before taking up the CFO role in 2020 when previous incumbent Trevor Strain became chief operating officer.
CD&R snapped up Morrisons £10 billion in October last year, with the acquisition funded by £3.4 billion of raised equity and a further £6.6 billion of loans that need refinancing.
READ MORE: Morrisons under growing pressure as buyout debt costs pile up
Morrisons delayed the planned refinancing due to the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 variant late last year.
Since then, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought large-scale new bond issuance to a virtual halt and sent prices of existing debt down.
Bonds issued last year by Asda following its own takeover by the Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR are now trading at around a 10% discount to their face value, according to the FT.
However, Morrisons is regarded by credit analysts as a higher-risk borrower than Asda because will operate with more debt relative to its profits.
Morrisons chief executive David Potts said Gleeson had made “a significant contribution to the business over the last eight years. “He leaves us with our sincere thanks and with our best wishes for his future endeavours”.
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