The pharmaceutical group Grifols led the rises of the Ibex, the Spanish stock market index, at the opening this morning, with a rise that reached 7% and which completely reversed after an hour with a decrease that reached 7%. 8%, among the uncertainty of investors after learning yesterday the conclusions of the investigation opened by the National Securities Market Commission (CNVM) on their accounts. Despite the accusations made by the bearish fund Gotham City Research, the regulator determined that it has not found significant errors.
After hearing the supervisor’s verdict, the shares of the Catalan company already skyrocketed on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, where they closed with a rise of 7.8%. Financial sources highlighted that the report clears up an important doubt that weighed on the market mood. In the Spanish opening, however, investors also appreciated that the regulator has not closed the possibility of continuing investigations and applying sanctions.
Grifols shares have accumulated a drop of 44% since the bearish bottom attack, and the company has lost nearly 4,000 million euros of its market capitalization. In the last two weeks, however, the shares have accumulated a rise of 28%.
The CNMV published the results of its investigation last night, in which it only asks the company to expand the information it provides to investors about its performance and its net financial debts, without asking it to reformulate the accounts.
The CNMV assured that “they have not found evidence that allows us to conclude that the financial debt reflected by Grifols in its annual consolidated financial statements does not correspond to reality”, a key aspect in the attacks of the bearish fund, which went so far as to say that the group He had a hidden debt that reduced the value of his shares to zero.
In Grifols’ opinion, the CNMV resolution “confirms” its financial statements and its debt and guarantees that “the operations between related parties have been carried out, in all cases, under market conditions and at market prices”, another of the aspects that They were the focus of Gotham’s attacks, which pointed out that there was a conflict of interest between the pharmaceutical company and Scranton, an investment holding company owned by the founding family.
The company said in a statement that “it is committed to improving its transparency and expanding the breakdowns of its financial information following the regulator’s recommendations.”
Financial sources attributed the sharp rise in the stock in New York to a “short closing,” since the shares traded exceeded the firm’s usual trading volume on the Nasdaq by 79%.
In the CNMV records there are five groups that maintain bearish positions equivalent to 3% of Grifols’ capital, but the short interest is greater, since only funds that exceed 0.5% of the company’s capital have to report it. Thus, on Tuesday the manager Janus Henderson joined the group of bearish funds and declared to the CNMV a bearish position of 0.53% of the capital, which is added to the 0.96% of the Qube fund, 0.52% of Millennium International, 0.51% of Ako Capital and 0.61% of Marshall Wace.
