Norway's PPI drops on market debut, SBB books $55 mln loss

Shares in Norway's Public Property Invest PPUBLI, partly owned by indebted Swedish real estate group SBB SBB_B, fell 4.5% on its Euronext Oslo market debut on Monday.

The initial public offering (IPO) was designed to cut PPI's debt while SBB conducts a wider restructuring in an effort to overcome soaring interest rates that have hit many European property companies.

SBB, which sold properties to PPI with a book value of 1.7 billion Swedish crowns ($155.7 million) as part of the listing, separately said on Monday that it will record a loss of 600 million crowns on the transaction.

PPI last week sold 105 million new shares at 14.50 Norwegian crowns each, at the bottom of the proposed range between 14.50 crowns and 21 crowns per share.

The transaction increased the overall number of shares to 208.6 million, valuing the company at 3.03 billion Norwegian crowns before Monday's share move.

The stock fell 4.5% to 13.85 Norwegian crowns by 0719 GMT.

PPI said it primarily owns properties rented by Norwegian public institutions such as the police, the judiciary and healthcare providers.

Starting in 2025 the company aims to pay about 60% of its cash earnings as quarterly dividends, it had said in a presentation promoting the IPO.

PPI is headed by interim CEO Ilija Batljan, the founder and former chief executive of SBB.

($1 = 11.0123 Norwegian crowns)

($1 = 10.9161 Swedish crowns)