Grifols shares soared up to 4% at the opening this Tuesday after announcing yesterday at market close the departure of the founding family from the company’s executive positions, as well as the signing of Nacho Abia as the new CEO. At mid-session the rebound moderated to 2%.
The titles are trading above 10.60 euros, still 25% below the moment Gotham published its report. In any case, they have already rebounded 27% from the lows of this stock market crisis.
The decision came weeks after the bearish fund Gotham Research attacked the value with a report in which it questioned its accounts, its real debt and the relationship with the Scranton firm, which channels the Grifols family’s investments. The CNMV is currently investigating the relations between Grifols and Scranton.
The company assures that the movement was already planned before the emergence of Gotham. In fact, it is the last step in the professionalization of the family pharmaceutical company, which began two years ago with the appointment of an external president.
Specifically, Grifols appointed Nacho Abia CEO with effect from April 1, maintains Thomas Glanzmann as executive president and Raimon Grifols and Víctor Grifols Deu will be proprietary directors, ending their executive stage and leaving their functions as corporate director and operations director, respectively.
Both were CEOs from January 2017 to May 2023, succeeding Víctor Grifols Roura in the position. During those six years they promoted the company’s international growth and agreements to expand the plasma business to Canada, China or Egypt.
The company will open another stage with the signing of Abia. A telecommunications engineer from the UPC, he has 25 years of experience in international management, most of it at Olympus, where he has been executive director and global director of strategy. Olympus is a Japanese company specialized in medical technology. It is listed on the Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a world leader in diagnostic equipment and minimally invasive treatments, with 33,000 employees. He will be appointed to the board on February 26 and will take office on April 1.
One of its main objectives will be to work on reducing Grifols’ debt, one of the points that Gotham attacked in its report. At the end of the third quarter, the company supports a financial debt of 9,540 million euros, about 6.7 times the operating profit (ebitda). The commitment is that by the end of the year the ratio will be less than 4.
