“The CNMV must make confidential information public”

Stock market crash Grifols This comes more than a week after the Gotham bear fund released a report accusing it of manipulating its books to feign lower debt and better operating results. The Catalan pharmacist denied the allegations in the text and assured that National Stock Market Commission (CNMV) requested information on cross-relationships with an investment entity. Scranton Enterpriseswhere members of the founding family are present and controls 8.4% of the capital, being the second largest shareholder of the company.

The deadline set by the manager was ten days and ends next Wednesday, January 24. Meanwhile, the share price and the company’s price continue to suffer, and its stock market value has already lost nearly 42% since the case began. A total of almost 3,600 million failures of one of the components Capricorn 35. Given this scenario, the departments are already considering a possible lawsuit to hold the company’s managers accountable for actions that have yet to be clarified by the presiding body. Rodrigo Buenaventura.

The Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders of Listed Companies (Aemec), represented by Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, is already studying the possible consequences of this case. “We do not yet have enough information to make a decision. We are collecting all the information and do not rule out contacting CNVM with a request to give us access to the request that they opened to Grifols,” explain sources at CNVM. association.

If the answer is negative, they will ask the supervisor to “make public information relevant to the market and the conclusions drawn from the information requested,” they add. CNMV sources avoid details about the status of the procedure. In any case, the deadline has been set and ends next week.

From this point on, there is no assessment process, so the organization must examine the documentation sent by the Catalan company. Depending on the amount of information, what the technicians value, and whether they decide to require more data, this process may take more or less time, but there is no time limit. “We believe that if there is information that should be known to investors in general, it is important that CNMV communicates and disseminates it so that we can all know it,” Aemec sources add.

The focus is on Scranton-related transactions. According to the blood products company’s President and CEO Thomas Glanzman during a conference call with analysts and investors to try to calm the situation, only 20% of the company’s capital comes from members of the founding family. But it is unknown who else is among the shareholders. The first director stated that it is a “long-term investment” vehicle in which “22 investors are participating, only three of which belong to the Grifols family.”

The firm is in the spotlight as the group consolidates in its accounts the results of the company, to which its parent company sold two companies that supplied it with raw materials in 2018. Accounting practices would, according to Gotham, reduce usewhich is much higher than what the pharmaceutical company claims.

In light of what the CNMV does or doesn’t say, minorities will have something to hold on to in order to gather their requirements against the company for damages caused. One possibility is that the company is involved in activities of a criminal nature, in which case it would be the company itself. supervisor the one who goes to Prosecutor’s office. On the other hand, if everything remains in practices that may have a civil aspect, minority shareholders will have to sue the firm, over which the investment fund Millennium International Management opened on Wednesday. short position equivalent to 0.53% of your capital.

“If something happens, we will see how we approach it,” Aemec says. The organization says it focuses its efforts on “defending the rules of the game.” “We are trying to ensure that bad things that happen don’t happen again and favor a system where minority shareholders can feel protected,” the sources added. “We are in a system of trust and cannot ask Spanish investors to buy shares and invest in the stock market if the companies there are not transparent, honest and strictly adhere to the rules of the game,” they conclude.

Apart from this, another aspect is to compensate for any damage that these actions may have caused to shareholders due to the alleged non-compliance with the rules. Unlike USAwhere there are also offices dealing with possible claims in Spain collective action cannot be carried out in this investment area. Therefore, demands will have to be submitted one after another.

In the event of possible civil wrongdoing, they add at Aemec, “we will pursue any claim to compensate shareholders for damages” in the regular courts. The CNMV, as an administrative body, will be limited to imposing sanctions on the company for its actions. Shareholders could claim all the damage caused. To do this, they must quantify it and prove that it was due to illegal behavior by the company. price dropfor example, is a good reference.

The ECB asked banks for information

This Thursday it became known that European Central Bank (BCE) would contact several of Grifols’ creditors to collect data on their exposure to the pharmaceutical company. He Santander Bank, KaishaBank And BBVA are among the persons associated with the company other than the French one BNP Paribas or Bank of America.

To try to calm things down, company management will consider accelerating its fiscal 2023 results presentation, which had been scheduled for Feb. 29. They believe that as he progressed Confidentialthat a particularly strong performance from a business perspective could stop the bleeding in the stock market.

But, despite the explanations of the company’s management, which claims that this practice was approved by an audit carried out KPMGdoubts in the market are still hidden.

“The worry for everyone who invests in the Spanish stock market is that every year or so they encounter something that they should have,” Aemec emphasizes. In this sense they say that “with what you will have to face market risk, not lack of transparency“The functioning of the stock market is based on truthful and complete information for all investors without discrimination against any of them,” they conclude.