Adler Group SA has extended the deadline for its planned €191 million ($204 million) bond sale, giving itself 10 more days to attract investors despite dangling a 21% interest rate to lure prospective buyers.
(Bloomberg) — Adler Group SA has extended the deadline for its planned €191 million ($204 million) bond sale, giving itself 10 more days to attract investors despite dangling a 21% interest rate to lure prospective buyers.
The German landlord has lengthened the offer period to Sept. 29, according to people familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak. The average return for bonds rated triple-C, which is where Adler ranks, is around 8%, according to Bloomberg indexes.
“We have decided to extend the bookbuilding period to give investors who are constructively engaging with us more time to assess the new issue,” said a spokesman for Adler.
Adler has been racing to sell assets and raise new funds, including a rescue financing from creditors such as Pimco and BlackRock, in a bid to stay afloat after fraud allegations and steep writedowns on its assets. The landlord ramped up disposals this month after the latest adjustment cut the value of its portfolio by about €1 billion.
Among the recent asset sales is a Berlin development project and a portfolio in Mannheim which it exited at a 10% discount to the last valuation. The writedown has made selling assets more palatable, given that Adler can divest them more easily at or close to the new book values.
The planned bond sale would be the first public debt raising for Adler since short-seller Fraser Perring almost two years ago accused the property giant of widespread fraud. Adler’s auditor resigned less than a year after Perring published his report and has still not been replaced.
Adler has denied the allegations.
The new debt is a so-called payment-in-kind bond, meaning investors wouldn’t get the interest in cash but in the form of additional bonds. It will sit senior to all of Adler’s existing debt except for the new super senior debt that was issued late last year.
Adler plans to use the money to pay back convertible debt that comes due in November. Those bonds could be exchanged for equity at €53.1589 per share, but with the stock trading at around 50 euro cents currently, conversion isn’t an option.
–With assistance from Giulia Morpurgo.
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