Reed Elsevier is offering $330m (£165m) of vendor financing at a high interest rate to help the Anglo-Dutch group offload its £1bn-plus publishing and information business, in the latest sign of the trouble private equity is having raising loans.

Details of the offer show Reed is offering $330m from its own balance sheet with an interest rate of 10 percentage points above Libor, the rate at which banks lend to each other.