The blood product manufacturer Grifols soared more than 16% on the stock market this morning after presenting the audit of its 2023 accounts to the CNMV, which KPMG endorses without qualifications. The stock market comeback is also driven by the purchase of shares worth 1.2 million euros by the directors; due to the entry into its capital of Melqart Opportunities, with 1.124%, a fund specialized in taking positions in companies that are candidates to receive a takeover bid, and due to the massive closing of the shorts caught by the rise, forced to cut their losses.
The lack of the audit had unleashed a selling panic on the stock market in recent days, which had sunk the share price to its 2011 lows and was also one of the reasons given on Tuesday by Moody’s for placing Grifols’ rating under review for its reduction.
The KPMG report clears up doubts about the financial health of the company, and above all, about the possible irregular financing of companies linked to the founding family, on which the attacks by the bearish fund Gotham City Research have focused.
The auditor, in his report, only draws attention to the goodwill, which amounts to 6,802 million euros, of which 2,679 correspond to its diagnostic unit, and to the sale of 20% of Shanghai Raas to Haier, for 1,600 million euros, which it warns incorporates future commitments with the buyer.
The president of Grifols, Thomas Glanzmann, had already announced in a conference with analysts that the group had a written commitment from KPMG to approve the accounts as they had been formulated without qualifications, and that only administrative difficulties had prevented the firm from completing its work on March 29, when the firm was to present its results.
KPMG is one of the “big four”, the four largest auditing companies in the world. With headquarters in the Netherlands, KPMG is present in 143 countries. KPMG has been Grifols’ auditor since 1990, and will cease to be as of next year, when Deloitte will take over in compliance with the Audit Law, which when it came into force in 2016 forced listed companies to change auditors every ten years.
The communication sent by Grifols to the CNMV indicates that the group has integrated into its accounts the joint venture established with ImmunoTek, with which it plans to build a network of 21 plasma centers in the United States. This slightly modifies the semi-annual accounts that the firm presented last week: it increases its cash flow by 4 million euros and its debt by 150 million, but also its assets by 115 million
Grifols’ accounts indicate that the multinational earned 59 million euros last year, 71% less than the previous year, due to the impact of its restructuring costs, which reached 147 million euros. The group achieved record revenues of 6,592 million euros, a record figure that exceeded those of 2022 by 11%, with a recovery in profitability, which brought the operating profit or ebitda to 1,474 million, 22.4% of the sales. The firm announced that this year it expects profitability to recover additionally, up to 1.8 billion euros.
Yesterday, Grifols also sent the corporate governance and directors’ remuneration report to the CNMV. Thus, the report explains, the president, Thomas Glanzmann and the two CEOs, Raimon and Víctor Grífols, jointly earned 5.36 million euros last year, for their executive duties and positions on the board. Glanzmann received 1.92 million and the other two directors received 1.7 million each. The firm also paid 5 million euros to Steven F. Mayer, executive president until February, when he resigned due to health problems due to “the termination of his contractual relationship.”
The report details the commercial relations with its shareholders, among which includes the payment of 300,000 euros to Scranton (a company owned by the founding family) for services in relation to the sponsorship contract of the Club Joventut de Badalona. It was also presented yesterday to the CNMV.
