Grifols will publish its annual accounts for the year 2024 on Wednesday, February 26, and will also hold its Capital Markets Day (CMD) on the following day, February 27, where it may present its guidance for 2025.
The year 2024 was marked by a significant drop in the stock price of the Catalan plasma company due to the crisis that arose after the four attacks launched by the short-selling fund Gotham City Research against Grifols, leading to a 40.8% decrease in its value over the year.
The short seller labeled the Catalan company as «highly leveraged» and accused it of manipulating its reported debt, prompting investigations by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and its U.S. counterpart, the SEC.
In addition to the 2024 results, the market is eagerly awaiting the definitive celebration of the CMD, as Grifols announced in early September the postponement of its Investor Day, originally scheduled for October 10, 2024.
The year also saw a potential offer from Canadian fund Brookfield Asset Management for the Spanish company, which was ultimately settled in November 2024.
CNMV and Sanctioning Proceedings
The CNMV, which began analyzing the information submitted by Grifols in January 2024, found «significant deficiencies» in its annual accounts, specifically in the detail and accuracy of the breakdowns and explanatory notes supporting the figures, as reported two months later.
The regulatory body did not identify «significant errors» in Grifols’ annual results, so it did not see the need for any reformulation of its financial statements at that time.
However, in September, the CNMV announced that it had opened sanctioning proceedings against Gotham and General Industrial Partners (GIP) for market manipulation in Grifols’ shares and for failing to comply with the ‘Market Abuse Regulation’ provisions on investment recommendations, and against the Catalan company for deficiencies in financial information and management reports.
On the other hand, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded its investigation into Grifols in November without imposing sanctions, after making two informal information requests to the Catalan company in April 2024 following Gotham’s accusations.
Coinciding with the SEC’s decision, Judge José Luis Calama of the National Court admitted a complaint from the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office against Gotham, GIP, and several of its executives for allegedly disseminating biased and misleading information about Grifols’ credibility in order to induce investors to sell the pharmaceutical company’s shares.
At the end of the year, the CNMV, which has not yet commented on possible sanctions, defended the institution’s actions in the case of Gotham and Grifols after its U.S. counterpart, the SEC, decided to close its investigation.
Legal Action in New York
In January, Grifols filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Gotham City Research, the fund’s director and founder Daniel Yu, General Industrial Partners (GIP), Cyrus de Weck, and their subsidiaries to seek compensation for the financial and reputational damage caused to the Catalan company and its stakeholders due to the reports questioning its accounting and solvency.
In their arguments, revealed on December 20, Gotham requested the dismissal of the case with Grifols, explaining that their report from January 9 falls under freedom of expression and that several of their points were deemed «substantially true» by the CNMV.
On the other hand, Grifols rejected the short seller’s request to dismiss the case with the Spanish company, respectfully stating that the defendants’ request for dismissal should be denied in its entirety.
Likewise, the Spanish company requested, as a subsidiary measure, «authorization to modify, including to add new allegations regarding the latest statements from the CNMV and the pending criminal investigation of the defendants.»
FUENTE
