Grifols leads the falls of the Ibex 35 with a decrease of 5%, awaiting its audited accounts

MADRID, 5 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Grifols shares plummeted this Tuesday on the stock market by more than 5% around 10:00 a.m., after the new attack by the bears received and awaiting the publication of its accounts audited by KPMG, whose deadline expires this Friday, March 8 .

Thus, the blood products firm led the declines on the Ibex 35 with a fall of 5.74%, to 7.618 euros per share.

Specifically, the bearish funds have returned to the charge against Grifols and, in that sense, the firm AKO Capital has reported that last Friday it took a short position on 0.59% of the Catalan company, while last day January 8 (the day before Gotham City published its report against the company) opened a position equivalent to 0.41%.

For its part, the Qube Research fund

In general, the fund has been increasing its bet against the company's price since opening a 0.5% short position at the end of January.

For its part, the Millenium fund reappeared in Grifols' share capital last Thursday with a short position of 0.5% on the capital, after that week the blood products company published its unaudited accounts.

The fund already decided to return to operations betting on a fall in shares in mid-January, after Gotham City Research published the first report questioning certain accounting and governance aspects of Grifols.

Specifically, Millenium opened a short of 0.5% of the capital, similar to the short positions it has had in the past, even before the Gotham report. The short position was built on February 29, coinciding with the publication of Grifols' accounts.

For its part, WorldQuant maintains a short of 0.49%. In recent days its percentage has been varying, but it has always remained around half a percentage point.

On the other hand, Capital Research and Management Company has reduced its participation from 5.104% to 4.600% in Grifols' share capital, according to CNMV records.

The fund has more than 19,601,000 shares of the Spanish company, which at current market prices represents 156,415,000 euros.

For its part, BlackRock has increased its presence from 4.189% to 4.309% in the share capital of the blood products firm. Thus, the fund manager controls more than 18.3 million shares, representing 147.9 million euros.

Grifols has reported that it almost tripled the remuneration of the members of its board of directors and senior management staff of the blood products company in 2023, to a total of 22.3 million euros, before the Gotham offensive.

Specifically, of this amount, 17 million euros correspond to senior management and the remaining 5.33 million euros to the board of directors, which represents 156.3% more than in 2022 (6.2 million euros and 2.5 million euros), as stated in the company's annual report sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on the occasion of the presentation of its unaudited results.

Thus, the members of the Grifols board of directors with executive functions - Thomas Glanzmann, Raimon Grifols Roura and Víctor Grifols Deu - received in 2023, before the offensive of the bearish fund Gotham City Research, 5.33 million euros, more double (113.2%) than the 2.5 million earned in 2022.

For its part, the company's senior management, made up of 15 members - data from 2022 - earned a global remuneration of 17 million euros in 2023, which represents an increase of 174.2% compared to the figure recorded. in the same period of the previous year.

The board of directors of the blood products company is made up, to date, of twelve members. Specifically, three of them have executive positions; six, independent; one, proprietary, and another, external. The firm has explained in statements to Europa Press that the twelfth person to complete its board is Nacho Abia.

In this sense, Abia is temporarily listed in the category of other external directors, waiting for him to become an executive director once he assumes the position of CEO with effect from April 1.

The Catalan company has stressed that Glanzmann, Grifols Roura and Grifols Deu do not receive payment for being members of the board, but rather receive their salary "for their executive functions", as explained by the same sources to Europa Press, while specifying that the The rest of the council earn up to 150,000 euros gross annually.