Troubled Swedish landlord Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB sold its entire stake in sector peer Heba Fastighets AB in the latest move to generate capital and strengthen its balance sheet.
Shares in SBB closed almost 16% higher in Stockholm following the announcement, while Heba’s shares gained 6%, giving it a market value of 4.6 billion kronor ($429 million).
SBB, as it’s more commonly known, owned 24.8% of Heba according to its earnings report for the first quarter. On June 29 it sold all directly held shares and now controls 0.74% of votes through financial instruments, according to a filing on Tuesday.
The Heba divestment took place via the sale of shares in SBB’s subsidiary, SBB Industricentralen Holding AB, to AB Industricentralen, a family-owned real estate firm, according to a statement from Heba. SBB declined to comment when reached by Bloomberg News. A value for the deal was not disclosed.
SBB, which has become the face of Sweden’s property crisis, must roll over $1.6 billion of maturing bonds within the next three years, though its debt pile is much larger.
The landlord was first cut to junk by S&P Global Ratings in early May, a move which sparked a free-fall in the company’s share price and led to the suspension of its dividend and a scrapped rights issue. Since then, the company has been downgraded a further two steps by S&P and it has hired banks to explore a full or partial sale of the firm. It’s also divested holdings, including properties.
(Adds details on the deal, no comment from SBB in fourth paragraph.)
