Brookfield withdraws from talks on takeover bid for Grifols

Brookfield has pulled out of talks over a takeover bid for listed Grifols. This was confirmed by the Canadian fund in a message sent to the CNMV, saying it was unable to make any offer “under the current circumstances”. Amid rumors of the purchase process being suspended, Grifols shares fell more than 10% on the stock market this morning.

The Grifols family and Brookfield have been in talks since July exclusively to announce a takeover of the Catalan pharmaceutical company. The decision comes after the stock market crash the company endured in the first half of the year following an attack by bearish fund Gotham City Research, which used a report pointing to several alleged accounting irregularities to drive down the price.

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Gabriel Trindade

The breakdown of negotiations opens up a scenario of an uncertain future for the Catalan pharmaceutical company. However, sources from the Grifols family indicate Vanguard who will continue to drive business expansion as they have done for over 115 years. In this sense, they indicate that they are very satisfied with the support received from current shareholders and note that they are not considering supporting “any other operation.”

Brookfield’s decision to pull out before filing a takeover bid arose from disagreements with Grifols’ deal committee, a body made up entirely of independent members of the established board of directors. ad hoc evaluate the proposal.

Brookfield values ​​Grifols at €6.4 billion

Last week, the body called on top management to reject Brookfield’s non-binding assessment to acquire the company. The Canadian fund valued the Catalan pharmaceutical company at 10.5 euros per share, for a total of about 6.4 billion euros. The board followed this recommendation based on the same argument as the deal committee: the proposal did not reflect growth potential.

The estimate was not presented as a formal proposal, but was simply included in a letter requesting additional information to conduct due diligence. In this sense, sources close to the process due diligence They note that, in addition to differences in estimates, Brookfield would also face difficulties on the part of the transaction committee in accessing the information needed to conduct the analysis.