Spanish pharma group Grifols was silent on the short-selling attack from Gotham City Research in today’s annual earnings call.
Grifols found itself under scrutiny from US-based Gotham City earlier this month for its ties with a company called Scranton Enterprise, among other accounting irregularities.
Contrary to Gotham City’s concerns over Grifols’ financials, the group hailed a “record year” with revenues exceeding €6.5 billion (£5.6 billion), up 11% year on year on a constant currency basis.
Adjusted earnings improved 26% to €1.48 billion, but one-off expenses relating to restructuring costs mean reported net profit tanked over 70% to €59 million.
“We delivered fully on our commitments in a record 2023 marked by focus on governance and progressively stronger operational and financial performance,” commented chief executive and chairman Thomas Glanzmann.
“From a re-energised plasma business to completing innovation milestones to the strategic alliance with Haier Group in support of deleveraging, our actions have built a strong momentum and set us up for sustainable profitable growth into 2024 and beyond.”
Gotham City accused Grifols of understating the company’s leverage ratio on a debt-to-EBITDA basis.
Per Grifols’ balance sheet, the group has reduced its leverage from 9x in the second quarter of 2022 to 6.3x by the end of 2023.
A pending divestment will reduce leverage to 5.4x, said Grifols. The company is hoping to reduce leverage to 4x, though has not given a specific timetable for achieving this.
The results were not enough to perk up Grifols' share price though; they fell another 10% today, bringing year-to-date losses to 30%.