Report: Burkle buys large share of Barneys

New York City Supermarket mogul Ron Burkle and his investment arm, Yucaipa, have purchased a large amount of U.S. luxury retail chain Barneys New York's debt, the Wall Street Journal said.

Citigroup sold a big part of Barneys' secured term loan to Burkle at about 60 cents on the dollar, the report said. Yucaipa also bought a big part of Barneys' subordinated debt, the paper cited one person familiar with the matter as saying.

Barneys, which is owned by Dubai's Istithmar World Capital, hired restructuring advisory firm Perella Weinberg earlier this year to help it mull options that would shore up its financial position. Istithmar, a unit of Dubai bought Barneys for $942 million from Jones Apparel Group in 2007.