The pharmaceutical group Grifols fell again today on the stock market, by 9.96%, due to press reports that indicated that there were rumors that the firm might need a capital increase. The increase, which would dilute the current shareholders, has been denied by the company, which points out that the improvement in profitability allows it to face the debt, of 9,420 million euros, because it has reduced its weight in the group’s accounts to 6 .3 times its ebitda.
Today’s fall left the stock at 8,082 euros, with a cumulative decline of 43% since the bearish fund Gotham City Research published a report on January 9 accusing it of falsifying its accounts.
Grifols has seen an increase in bearish positions in recent days: the AKO fund informed the CNMV that it has taken a short position of 0.59% of the capital, while another fund, Millenium, reported 0.5%. WorldQuant maintains it, at 0.49% and Qube Research
The Capital Research and Management Company fund, the first shareholder of Grifols outside the founding family, announced a reduction in its participation to 4.6%, which on other occasions has been due to the loan of its shares to bearish funds. BlackRock, for its part, the largest investment fund manager in the world, increased its stake in the pharmaceutical company, up to 4.309% of the capital.
On the other hand, Banc Sabadell analysts confirmed that director James Costos has already signed the accounts, as the company announced last week, and that the company has assured them that it has obtained written confirmation from the auditor KPMG that it will endorse the accounts. presented by the firm.
The bank’s analysts pointed out that the company has highlighted that “it has various additional financing alternatives such as negotiation with debt holders, access to the debt market or possible divestments in non-strategic assets, to optimize the structure of the debt and its cost. financial”.
Thus, Grifols also highlighted that it has defined a plan, “with the support of its reference banks, to meet the planned maturities, while maintaining a firm commitment to comply with its debt reduction objectives.”
