...PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) April 28, 2023--S&P Global Ratings today said that Vonovia SE's 1 billion sale of minority stakes in Sndewo will help repay its bond maturities and soften the impact of rising rates on its interest coverage ratio. Sndewo is a 3.3 billion subsidiary Vonovia (###+/Stable/A-2) fully acquired for 1.9 billion in 2015. The 30% stake divestment to a group of insurance investors looking for long-term and stable income, in a fund managed by Apollo, will be via the issuance of new class B shares. We view the class B shares as common equity. This is notably because there is a low likelihood that Vonovia would utilize the call option, which is at its discretion, and buy them back given current financial market challenges and the company's publicly stated target to materially decrease its balance sheet. That said, we acknowledge that the company could extract capital from a portfolio of assets, which we understand are restricted for sale before 2032 under a social charter....
