The Grifols pharmaceutical group announced yesterday to the National Securities Market Commission (CNVM) that it has begun negotiations to refinance its debt issues due in 2025, one of the points that has focused the markets’ concerns in recent weeks financiers and which led to rating firms such as Moody’s, S
The Catalan firm explained to the CNMV that “it is actively working to issue senior secured notes, the funds of which, if successful, will be used to refinance unsecured notes due on 2025”, without detailing the amount of the bonds it proposes to issue.
The president of the company, Thomas Glanzmann, already announced in the last conference with analysts in the presentation of results that the firm wanted to close this refinancing during the first half of this year.
The company also explained that it continues to make progress in closing the sale of 20% of its Chinese subsidiary Shanghai RAAS to the Haier group and assured that the proceeds, of 1.8 billion dollars (about 1.6 billion euros), will be allocated to to reduce your secured debt. The company, which has been headed by Nacho Abia since April 1, confirmed that it expects this transaction to close in the first half of 2024, in line with what had been planned.
According to data from the rating agency S
Grifols closed the 2023 financial year with a net financial debt of 9,420 million, which rose slightly compared to 9,191.3 million in 2022. At the same time, it has seen the free cash flow available to service it decrease, for the need to redo the stocks after the drop in donations suffered during the pandemic and due to the expenses committed in the opening of plasma centers, in R D and in the rise in interest rates.
As the firm explained to the CNMV, although the operating profit or ebitda that it expects to generate this year is more than 1.8 billion euros, these commitments will absorb all the free cash flow that the group will generate this year, of 900 millions of euros.
The stock market initially welcomed Grifols’ initiative to accelerate the refinancing of its debt with gains, as an important factor of uncertainty was reduced, but the stock eventually closed with a 3.6% fall, affected by the expectations that rate cuts will be delayed, especially in the United States. The company has accumulated a 36% drop in the stock market since the attack by the vulture fund Gotham City Research, despite the fact that it is up 32% from the lows.
