The face of Sweden’s property crisis has sold some properties to a municipality to strengthen its financial position.
Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB, or SBB as it’s more commonly known, has sold eight properties in the Swedish town Linkoping to municipality-owned firm Lejonfastigheter for 400 million kronor ($37 million), according to a statement. The firm didn’t disclose at which valuation the deal was made.
Despite being a small deal compared with SBB’s $8 billion debt pile, the divestment could be a welcoming sign for the property firm which is looking to strengthen its balance sheets through asset sales at a time when the transaction market has slowed to the lowest volumes in ten years.
“Our relations with Nordic municipalities are of the utmost importance and we have said that we are open to dialogs with municipalities that want to acquire properties and where the municipality can act quickly,” SBB’s chief executive officer, Leiv Synnes, said in the statement. He added that SBB has “several dialogs” open on further deals with municipalities.
SBB became the center of Sweden’s property crisis after being cut to junk grade at S&P Global Ratings last month. It has since then replaced its founder Ilija Batljan as CEO, put up the entire firm for sale and come under scrutiny by the country’s financial watchdog. But while several municipalities have expressed interest to buy their properties back, it has been unclear to which extent that would be possible.
