FRANKFURT, Nov 30 Reuters A debt crunch at Swedish property group SBB has left the European Central Bank at risk of losses and highlighted the 26 billion euro 29 billion exposure it built up to Europe39;s now stricken real estate sector through its crisisera bond buying.

A Reuters analysis of ECB records shows that it owns two eurodenominated bonds issued by SBB, which racked up debts of more than 9 billion buying property, including social housing, government offices, schools and hospitals.

Two sources familiar with the matter said that the ECB39;s SBB bond holdings totalled a few hundred million euros. One SBB bond is now trading at roughly half its face value, showing investors were pricing in some risk of an eventual debt default.

When SBB, which is now junkrated, recently bought back bonds at a small discount to stabilise its finances, the ECB was among the sellers, one person familiar with the matter said.

An ECB spokesperson declined to comment on SBB or any losses incurred, pointing to its website where the central bank characterises its losses in general as side effects and says it can dip into large profits of recent years to offset them.

Although SBB represents a small exposure for the ECB, it is reopening a debate about how the euro zone central bank has splashed nearly 400 billion euros on company debt since 2016 as part of huge asset purchases to avert the threat of deflation.

In total, it spent around 5 trillion euros on government debt, company bonds…