LONDON, UK: The international credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has positively revised the credit rating outlook of Akropolis Group, the leading shopping and entertainment centre development and management company in the Baltic countries.
S&P announced on 26 October that it had revised the BB+ outlook on the issuer’s long-term credit rating to stable, which until then was negative.
“For over one and a half year we are operating in a truly complex pandemic environment, therefore such an assessment by an international rating agency shows that “Akropolis Group”, being one of the core subsidiaries of “Vilniaus Prekyba”, successfully addresses the faced challenges, and our business model is sustainable and resilient to external factors. The Group demonstrates strong and stable financial results, as well as strong and healthy rent collection rate,” says Manfredas Dargužis, CEO of Akropolis Group.
“The development of Akropolis Group through the on-going acquisition of the Alfa shopping centre in Riga, Latvia and the restart of the conversion project – the development of the multifunctional complex Akropolis Vingis in Vilnius – confirms that we firmly believe in the shopping and entertainment centre market and its future potential,”
S&P first rated Akropolis Group on 19 May 2021. Last week S&P has also positively revised Maxima Grupe‘s BB+ credit rating outlook to stable. Maxima Grupe is the core subsidiary of Vilniaus Prekyba, which is the sole shareholder of Akropolis Group.
In May of this year, the rating agency Fitch Ratings (Fitch) assigned Akropolis Group a long-term issuer rating BB+ with a stable outlook.
In June this year, Akropolis Group successfully placed its debut 300 million euro 5-year bond issue with an annual interest rate of 2.875%. Akropolis Group bonds are listed on the Nasdaq Vilnius and Euronext Dublin stock exchanges.