The pharmaceutical group Grifols fell once more today on the stock market, 11.7%, to 6.86 euros, due to the decision of the risk rating agency Moody’s to review its credit rating and due to a new attack by the Gotham City vulture fund Research.
The share has fallen today to 6.37 euros (18%), with a cumulative decline of 55% since the bearish fund published, on January 9, a report in which it accused it of falsifying its accounts. At these levels, the company has marked its lowest price since February 2012.
Moody’s informed investors yesterday that it has placed the Catalan multinational’s rating under review for downgrade and points out as reasons a weaker free cash flow generation in 2023-2024 than it had anticipated and the delay in the presentation of the audited accounts. The company president, Thomas Glanzmann, assured in the presentation of results that he had obtained written confirmation from the auditor KPMG that it will endorse the accounts presented by the firm to the CNMV, and that it would make its report public this week.
Gotham questions Haema
Moody’s bases its decision on the fact that there is an “execution risk” in the sale of the 20% stake in its Chinese subsidiary Shanghai Raas, an operation that is vital for the group to meet its 2025 maturities, and also “ governance considerations” and its “organizational complexity”.
Moody’s decision contrasts with the decision of its competitor Standard & Poor’s (S&P), which a few weeks ago maintained the rating with a stable outlook, although it recognized that “additional unfounded accusations by short sellers” might harm “market sentiment in the short term” and affect the company’s position in the credit markets.
Gotham City, for its part, questions the accounts of Haema, a company that has plasma centers in Germany, which is owned by Scranton (the investment holding company owned by the Grifols family) but which the pharmaceutical company consolidates in its accounts, since it controls its management, buys all its plasma and has an option to acquire it.
According to Gotham, Grifols has granted Haema advances of 44 million euros. But that company participates in a “centralized treasury management agreement (cash pool)” of the entire Scranton group, in which the German firm finances other companies with 67 million euros, which in Gotham’s opinion represents through indirectly a loan from Grifols to the founding family’s business group.
The president of the CNMV, Rodrigo Buenaventura, who participated this morning in an event in Barcelona, assured that the analysis of the information required from Grifols “is very advanced,” and he will publish his conclusions “as soon as possible.”
The stock market crash in recent weeks has led to Grifols’ capitalization being reduced by around 4,000 million euros in two months and is now 45.8% lower than the 8,711 million euros it reached in January.
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