LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) - British supermarket Asda has

refinanced over 3.2 billion pounds ($4.0 billion) of debt,

pushing out the majority of its maturities into the next decade,

it said on Friday.

Asda, the UK's third largest grocer, is owned by brothers

Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital.

The supermarket has been

burdened

by high debt levels since the Issas and TDR bought the

business from Walmart ( WMT ) in a 6.8 billion pound deal in

2020 which left the U.S. giant retaining a 10% stake. Asda's

interest costs

in 2023 were 225 million pounds.

"We saw strong demand from investors after taking a

thoughtful and prudent approach to refinancing our near-term

debt well ahead of maturities - to further strengthen our

balance sheet," Asda finance chief Michael Gleeson said, noting

the refinancing followed rating agency Moody's recent upgrade of

its corporate rating.

Last month, Asda reported a 24% jump in

2023 earnings

to over 1 billion pounds.

However,

monthly industry data

has shown Asda continuing to lose market share to rivals

this year including to market leader Tesco ( TSCDF ) and No. 2

Sainsbury's ( JSNSF ).

On Thursday,

market researcher NIQ

said Asda's sales were down 0.9% over the 12 weeks to April

20 year on year, with its market share down 70 basis points on

the year.

($1 = 0.7974 pounds)