This weekend, representatives from the Government Offices called around to various large institutional investors to hear about the interest in buying Swedish community service properties. Finance Minister Niklas Wykman (M) does not want to discuss individual companies, but he confirms the talks.
"We have had a broad dialogue with the industry. With banks, property owners and with institutional investors. We see that there is an interest in Swedish real estate. It is the main assessment that this can be solved on a market basis. Those who have taken on too much risk, too much debt can sell to those who have less debt. In this way, this can be stabilized," he says.
The highly leveraged SBB with CEO Ilja Batljan currently owns around 700 municipal properties for schools, nursing homes and preschools around Sweden. At an emergency meeting on Monday, the Board decided to possibly sell all or part of the business to save the company.
Several municipalities are now discussing the possibility of buying back the buildings they recently sold to SBB.
The Minister for Financial Markets believes that the situation in the stressed real estate industry is not so serious now that the Government needs to act.
"If we were to end up in an even more difficult situation or if even more serious factors were to emerge that affect this market, then politics can act, but we are not there now," says Niklas Wykman.