Grifols shares rose up to 3% mid-session this Wednesday, after presenting results yesterday at the market close. The securities are trading above 10 euros, figures not seen since the end of February.
Investors respond positively to the group’s accounts. The blood products multinational earned 21 million euros in the first quarter, a reversal of the losses of 108 million it recorded the previous year due to restructuring costs. The figures allow it to “maintain its commitment to profitable and sustainable growth, focused on the generation of free cash flow and the reduction of debt,” it was reported in the presentation of the accounts.
The increases in the stock market help Grifols to lead the advances in the Ibex 35. The company, which placed its net debt at 10,948 million euros, has also stressed that it is moving forward to meet its 2024 guidance, which includes income of more than 7,000 million euros and an adjusted gross operating result (EBITDA) of over 1,800 million euros.
Hours before the results were published, the bearish fund Gotham launched a new attack against the company for its relations with Scranton, an investment company owned by several members of the founding family. Despite a first reaction of falling shares, it has managed to overcome the offensive, since the operation it questions is included and explained in the accounts, and has been endorsed by the KPMG audit and by the CNMV.
Specifically, Gotham claims that BPC Plasma, a company controlled by the Catalan firm, lent “over the years” funds that it “received from a third party, most likely Grifols,” to the Scranton family office. “BPC has since declared a dividend to Scranton. Instead of paying this dividend in cash, BPC has canceled loans worth about €266 million that it had granted to Scranton. “This leads us to believe that Scranton never intended to repay these loans,” the report states.
