Nordic Credit Rating said today that it had raised its issue ratings on senior unsecured debt issued by Fastighets AB Stenvalvet (publ) (Stenvalvet) to 'BBB+' from 'BBB' to reflect the company's plan to reduce senior secured debt as a proportion of outstanding debt below 50%. The 'BBB+' issue rating is applicable to future senior unsecured instruments issued within the company's SEK 5bn medium-term note programme.
Rationale
The rating action follows a 25 Sep. 2020 announcement by Stenvalvet that it plans to issue a senior unsecured bond with a minimum amount of SEK 500m in the next few days. The issue will reduce the proportion of the company's senior secured debt to below 50% of outstanding debt, including bank loans, commercial paper, and issued bonds. In addition, Stenvalvet announced that it intends to continue to reduce its share of senior debt to 30-40% of outstanding debt by repaying bank loans with future issues of senior unsecured debt.
The 'BBB+' long-term issuer rating on Stenvalvet remains unchanged.
All research for this issuer is available here.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Mille O. Fjeldstad, credit rating analyst, +4799038916, mille.fjeldstad@nordiccreditrating.com
Sean Cotten, chief rating officer, +46735600337, sean.cotten@nordiccreditrating.com
The methodology documents used for this rating are NCR's Corporate Methodology published on 14 Aug. 2018 and NCR's Rating Principles published on 16 Sep. 2019. For the full regulatory disclaimer please see the rating report.