By Matthias Inverardi and John O’Donnell

(Reuters) – Adler Group is one of Germany’s most prominent landlords. It hopes to increase repayments of 600,000,000 euros to German banks after it has sold roughly 30,000 apartments.

Two massive sales made this month by the company mark the latest effort by the troubled company to improve its standing. Shares of the company have plummeted since last year when it was attacked by short-sellers who were critical of its transparency in business finances.

Maximilian Rienecker (CEO) of Adler Group, told Reuters that although it has reduced its debt due to property sales, the group will still seek repayments on any bank loans due within the next two-years.

“We have mainly banks in our area with whom we have extended loans in the past,” Rienecker said, referring specifically to a repayment extension on 600,000,000 euros (or $688 million) worth of debt. We are currently in discussions about this.

He stated that in addition to the bank debt, there will be 1.1 billion euro of bonds due within the next two years. These could be settled through issuing new bonds or being repaid.

Adler earlier announced that it had sold roughly 14.400 residential and commercial properties. This is its second sale in two weeks.

In December, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s flagged concerns that such sales trimmed its portfolio of rental property, increasing dependence on longer-term development projects that are typically risky.

The rating outlook for Adler was then rated negative by the agency. This indicated a higher risk of Adler being downgraded due to uncertainty in Adler’s future development plans. The sale could result in this rating outlook changing.

Moody’s (NYSE 🙂 withdrew its rating of the company in early 2013 but didn’t say why.

Rienecker rejected Standard & Poor’s criticism.

He stated that “we will not have net rent, but on the contrary, we are decreasing our debts.”

According to Hertz, the group will have 30,000 apartments, of which two-thirds are located in Berlin. They also plan on developing property development projects.

Rienecker stated that he expects that a KPMG audit of the company’s affairs, regarding the claims of fraud perpetrated by a short-seller would be finished and reported within six months.

Adler Group announced that it will receive net cash proceeds in excess of 600 millions euros (686 million dollars) after the deal was closed to private equity firm KKR on Thursday.

According to the company, it would be possible to achieve a loan/to-value ratio of approximately 45%, which is an important indicator of debt burden.

Adler earlier in the month had announced another sale of over 15,500 properties for LEG Immobilien.

($1 = 0.8740 euros)