Sweden’s SBB receives letters from funds intending to accelerate Eurobonds

(Reuters) – Swedish property group SBB said it had received letters from FFI Fund and Olifant Fund notifying an intention to accelerate their holdings of its 2028 and 2029 notes issued under the 2020 and 2021 Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme.

The bondholders claimed that their combined holdings in these bonds amount to a nominal value of about 52 million euros ($54.78 million), SBB said on Wednesday, adding that the latest letters were identical to those it received in November.

The company, however, said it rejects the claim that it is in breach of the EMTN consolidated covenant ratio and considers the alleged acceleration, which is the subject of the litigation, to be ineffective.

The EMTN programme, launched by SBB in 2019 with a programme limit of 2.5 billion euros, is designed to complement the company’s existing long-term funding and help issue bonds in the international debt capital markets.

The total nominal value of the holdings described in the latest letters and those received in November amounts to about 103 million euros, the company said.

SBB, which owns properties such as hospitals and care homes, reported a tenth consecutive quarterly loss last month.

However, the 1.92 billion Swedish crowns ($175.93 million) loss was less than the 3.13 billion crowns posted a year earlier.

($1 = 0.9493 euros)

($1 = 10.9134 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)