Fitch assigns Investment Grade Rating BBB- with a Positive Outlook and clear pathway to further rating upgrades

18 Nov 2024 13:40 CET

Fitch Ratings has today assigned Public Property Invest ASA ("PPI") a
first-time Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'BBB-' with a Positive
Outlook.

"The rating reflect PPI's public sector-tenanted NOK9.9 billion portfolio of
community service properties and the stability of its rental income, linked to
the Norwegian government. Its properties are, to a large degree, specialised
and comprise police stations, courts, government and municipality
administrations, healthcare, education, as well as public and private offices.
This low-risk rental income profile is paired with low leverage (3Q24: net
debt/EBITDA 7.8x (using annualised rents); loan-to-value (LTV) 45%), an
interest coverage of around 2x, and a conservative financial policy.

The Positive Outlook reflects our expectation that PPI intends to improve
certain factors that constrain the IDR to 'BBB-', the resolution of which may
occur instantly: its short debt maturity profile (3Q24: 3.2 years) and short
interest-rate fixing, its concentrated portfolio, and a lack of unencumbered
assets. Upon issuing a planned NOK3.5 billion/EUR300 million five-year
fixed-rate unsecured bond, most of these factors improve, pointing to a 'BBB'
IDR" the Fitch press release states.

"We are very pleased to announce that we now have achieved a Fitch rating of
BBB- with a positive outlook. This is an important enabler to establish a more
sustainable and attractive long-term financing structure for PPI. This
represents a milestone for us and is fully in line with what has been
communicated as a key near-term target for PPI, since the successful IPO in
April 2024", says Ilija Batljan, interim CEO of PPI.

Contact: Ilija Batljan, Interim CEO, ilija@publicproperty.no, +46 (0)
705183967, Marianne Aalby, EVP Finance and ESG, maa@publicproperty.no, +47
92614477, or Tone K. Omsted, EVP IR and Corporate Finance,
tone.omsted@publicproperty.no, +47 98228519

This information has been submitted pursuant to the Securities Trading Act §
5-12 and MAR Article 17. The information was submitted for publication at
2024-11-18 13:40 CET.

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