Swedish landlord SBB sells stake in Heba Fastighets to boost balance sheet

TROUBLED Swedish landlord Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden sold its entire stake in sector peer Heba Fastighets in the latest move to generate capital and strengthen its balance sheet.

SBB, as it’s more commonly known, owned 24.8 per cent 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 per cent of votes through financial instruments, according to a filing on Tuesday (Jul 4).

SBB, which has become the face of Sweden’s property crisis, must roll over US$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.

Fitch Ratings has placed SBB on rating watch negative (RNW), the credit ratings company said on Tuesday (Jul 4).

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Shares in SBB rose almost 17 per cent in Stockholm following the announcement, while Heba’s shares gained as much as 8.1 per cent, giving it a market value of US$436 million. BLOOMBERG