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STOCKHOLM, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Property group SBB
has agreed to sell one of its properties to a Swedish
municipality for 191 million Swedish crowns ($17.4 million) as
part of its drive to reduce debt.
SBB is scrambling to bolster its finances after its credit
rating has been cut deeper into junk status. Its shares have
lost over 90% of their value since peaking in 2021.
The property group has said it plans to sell properties
worth around 6 billion crowns this year.
It is also looking at other options to improve its balance
sheet and regain investor confidence, which have included
looking at potentially selling all or parts of its business.
The sale comes amid a focus on the price SBB’s new CEO Leiv
Synnes can secure for assets, after he said in early June that
sales would not be at a discount.
The sale to Nykvarn municipality involves the town hall,
including a number of residential buildings.
The deal is part of a letter of intent SBB signed with a
number of municipalities in July to sell properties back to its
tenants with an agreed total property value of more than 3
billion crowns.
It is the second deal SBB has made with Nykvarn municipality
recently after SBB sold a residential property to
municipality-owned company AB Nykvarnbostäder in July.
SBB, founded by former social democrat politician Ilija
Batljan, built up vast debts over the years by buying public
property including social housing, government offices, schools
and hospitals, including some rent-controlled residential
buildings.
Carlsquare analyst Bertil Nilsson said the sale was small
compared to SBB’s total property portfolio, but that it might
increase investors’ expectations of future, larger deals.
($1 = 10.9855 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Greta Rosen Fondahn in Gdansk and Marie Mannes in
Stockholm
Editing by Mark Potter)
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