OSLO, May 12 (Reuters) – Troubled Swedish real estate group SBB (SBBb.ST) said late on Thursday it had sold most of its shares in construction company JM (JM.ST) for 2.8 billion Swedish crowns ($275.8 million).
The transaction gives SBB a much-needed cash infusion after scrapping a share issue earlier this week when ratings agency S&P Global downgraded the company’s debt to so-called junk status.
Rising interest rates, soaring inflation and growing debt have hit real estate companies in Sweden, which the country’s policymakers see as a risk to financial stability.
SBB’s share price is down 62% year to date.
The company said it had sold 19 million shares in JM, corresponding to a stake of 29.5%, at a price of 148.1 Swedish crowns per share, reducing SBB’s stake to just 2.9%.
“The sale enables a focus on the company’s core business and a further strengthening of SBB’s financial position,” SBB founder and CEO Ilija Batljan said in a statement.
While SBB had said it continued to work on potential asset sales, its chairman had recently denied in a newspaper interview that it would divest from JM.
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) acted as sole global coordinator and bookrunner in the share sale, SBB said.
($1 = 10.1526 Swedish crowns)
Reporting by Terje Solsvik, Louise Rasmussen
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