(Bloomberg) -- Swedish real estate group SBB tumbled as much as 27% in Stockholm on Monday after newspaper Dagens Industri advised readers to sell the stock.
Shares in Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB — as the company is formally known — plunged the most since May last year. The paper warned of risks arising from too much debt and the firm’s ability to generate positive cash flow. Its true value following a series divestment deals and last month’s listing of its residential unit, Sveafastigheter AB, is also under the spotlight, the paper said.
The stock fell to as low as 4.18 kronor and traded at 4.39 kronor at 10:32 a.m. in Stockholm.
SBB last month spun off its housing division as part of a broader strategy to split the group into three along its community, education and residential portfolios. Before that, Chief Executive Officer Leiv Synnes was brought in to lead the real estate group after its share price went into freefall last year following a surge in borrowing costs and a spate of costly credit-rating downgrades.
That strategy has failed to arrest the slide in SBB’s share price, which continues to languish near record lows. Dagens Industri, an influential newspaper with retail stock investors in Sweden, questioned if the landlord will even survive next year.
Writing on LinkedIn in response to the article, Synnes said that companies do not have to be worse because they have higher debt. “It is just another risk.”
“And higher risk usually gives higher returns over time in a rational world,” Synnes added.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.