Grifols soars more than 7% on the stock market after last week's collapse due to the Gotham accusations

MADRID, 15 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Grifols shares rose more than 7% on the stock market after 9:20 a.m., after a week marked by the offensive launched by the Gotham City Research fund against the Spanish company.

The Catalan firm's shares closed last Friday, January 12, at 8.874 euros, which represented a 39% drop compared to the 14.57 euros at which it closed on January 5.

However, Grifols started the trading day this Monday on the rise, leading the rise of the Ibex 35, with a rise of more than 7% at 9:25 a.m., up to 9,504 euros per share, although around 9:10 a.m. its shares registered a increase of 5.45%, to 9.358 euros per share.

The bearish firm notified the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on January 8 that it had built a short position on Grifols equivalent to 0.57% of its capital. After publishing a report criticizing its governance, leverage and financial statements, the company's price plummeted 25.91%, a moment that Gotham took advantage of to close almost its entire short position.

The firm maintained a residual short position of 0.06% until last Thursday, January 11, when it decided to close it taking advantage of a new drop of 16.17% in the price, which occurred after a conference call of the board of directors of Grifols with investors and shareholders in which he gave explanations and defended himself against Gotham's accusations.

With these two operations, according to calculations made by Europa Press based on the prices at the close of the sessions, Gotham would have pocketed almost 18 million euros in profit.

This profit figure is theoretical and could be higher or lower depending on the price at which the purchase and sale was carried out, as well as other expenses, such as the leverage of the operation or the consideration offered to the shareholders from whom the shares were taken. to make the short sale.

However, the bears' 'assault' on Grifols may not have ended last week. The manager Capital Group, Grifols' fifth largest shareholder, notified the CNMV that on January 10, when the shares rose, it decided to lend 2 million Grifols shares.

The fund does not indicate to whom it has lent those shares or for what purpose. The operation of a bearish investor who trades shorts implies that he has to borrow shares from a third party to sell them in the markets and then buy them back and return them to their original owner. The profit is obtained when the price of a security falls.

Given this movement, on Tuesday, January 9, the president of the CNMV, Rodrigo Buenaventura, stated that the financial regulator "is going to exercise its powers to clarify the situation." Thus, he is going to gather additional information to clarify the situation, although he has warned that it does not make sense, for the moment, to cast doubt on the company's accounts.

Later, in a conference call with analysts and investors, the company indicated that the CNMV had given it a period of 10 days to offer detailed information on various aspects of its accounting, including Grifols' links with Scranton, the company of the family.

Grifols attempted to discredit Gotham City Research's allegations on several occasions last week, calling them false. In this sense, he indicated that his accounting "is fully endorsed" by his auditor, KPMG.

Grifols argued that it maintains control of the Haema and Biotest firms even though it does not own their shares, although it has not clarified why Scranton - the investment company of the Grifols family along with directors and former directors - also consolidates these companies in its accounts, which is one of the criticisms that Gotham makes.