Levi Strauss, the US clothing company best known for its Levi jeans, will save itself more than $10m (€7.6m) in annual interest costs after refinancing existing debt through a $580m equivalent privately-placed junk bond.

Citigroup, whose Salomon Brothers unit arranged the 2001 deal for Levi, is working with Bank of America on a tender offer for the bonds that is due to close on March 23. The two banks are also arranging the new dual currency private placement for Levi, which was upgraded by both Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's recently.