Grifols plummets almost 13% and its shares mark the lowest opening price since 2012

MADRID, 6 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Grifols shares plummeted almost 13% on the stock market this Wednesday around 9:25 a.m. and marked their lowest price since February 2012, pending the publication of its accounts audited by KPMG, whose deadline expires this Friday, March 8. March.

Thus, Grifols led the declines of the Ibex 35 with a fall of 12.91%, with its shares being exchanged at a price of 6,770 euros per share, which leads it to accumulate a fall of 56.2% so far. of year.

For his part, the president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Rodrigo Buenaventura, stressed this Tuesday that the stock market supervisor's analysis of Grifols still has weeks left to conclude.

The head of the CNMV has thus maintained the same discursive line as that expressed a week ago on the occasion of the presentation of the public body's activity plan for this year.

Buenaventura then indicated that they had requested new clarifications and complementary information from the Catalan blood products company and that, therefore, they needed more time to conclude their investigation.

"We just received them a few days ago and we still need a few more weeks," Buenaventura explained during the press conference held last week and in a line of argument that he maintained yesterday.

Thus, since the bearish firm Gotham City Research published a report on January 9 in which it accused the Catalan company of cooking up its accounts, Grifols has lost close to half of its market capitalization.

Asked then about the analysis of Gotham's behavior, he recalled that at first the CNMV stated that it would analyze whether the bearish fund complied with the requirements of the regulations on the dissemination of misleading information; However, this analysis, Buenaventura explained, depends on the first analysis of the information published by Grifols itself.

In this sense, Buenaventura indicated that the CNMV is in contact with its "North American counterparts", the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding information about Gotham City Research.

While waiting to communicate its audited accounts to the market, Grifols 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, up 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.