Moody's cuts Heritage bonds to junk

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Heritage Property Investment Trust, Inc.'s senior unsecured bonds to Ba2 from Baa3 and left them under review for possible downgrade. The company had about $350 million of unsecured bonds outstanding as of March 31.

The agency attributed the downgrade to delayed securities filings, constrained transparency and increasing secured debt. The REIT's 10-Q filing for the third quarter of 2006 was only released on March 20, and it is unknown when its 10-K filing for 2006 will be made available.

Moody's review will focus on the timeliness of Heritage's security filings and on the long-term evolution of the firm's management structure - Heritage was purchased by affiliates of Centro Properties Group in October - and leverage appetite.

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