€1.4 million fine for Grifols and its executives following Gotham accusations
The CNMV imposes several sanctions on the Catalan company for defects in financial information and management reports.
BarcelonaThe National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has imposed several fines on Grifols and its directors for a value of almost 1.4 million euros, following the sanctioning file that opened last September following accusations by the Gotham City hedge fund about flaws in its financial information and management reports. Official State Gazette (BOE) published this Wednesday a resolution dated July 24 by the Spanish stock market regulator detailing the sanctions for very serious and serious infractions imposed on the Catalan blood derivatives company and several of its directors.
Specifically, the CNMV has fined Grifols €800,000 "for providing regulated financial information with inaccurate or untrue data" in its financial reports for 2021, 2022, and 2023, and in the consolidated financial information for the first half of 2010. 2010. its directors with €230,000. Specifically, it is seeking €40,000 from board members Raimon Grífols Roura, Víctor Grífols Deu, and Carina Szpilka. Regarding the remaining directors, Iñigo Sánchez-Asiaín Mardones has been fined €30,000; Steven F. Mayer (executive chairman until 2023), Montserrat Muñoz Abellana, and Thomas Glanzmann (executive chairman until February) have been fined €20,000; and Belén Villalonga Morenés and Tomás Dagá Gelabert have been fined €10,000.
Furthermore, the CNMV has also considered the inclusion of misleading information regarding the calculation method for alternative performance measures in the management reports for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023, and for the first half of 2023, as grounds for the fine. The CNMV has also imposed another fine of €200,000, and its directors have been fined €126,000. In this case, the infringement has also affected, in addition to those mentioned above, the current CEO of the group, Nacho Abia, and the directors Enriqueta Felip Font, James Costos, Marla E. Salmon, Susana González Rodríguez and Albert Grifols Coma-Cros.
Grifols will appeal the sanctions.
In total, the "very serious" violation related to its financial statements amounts to €1,030,000, while the second violation amounts to €326,000, bringing the total to €1,356,000. Of those sanctioned, Thomas Glanzmann, Steven F. Mayer, Carina Szpilka Lázaro, Belén Villalonga Morenés, James Costos, and Marla E. Salmon are no longer members of the board of directors. According to ARA, Grifols will appeal these fines, which are in line with the company's expectations when it was announced that the CNMV had opened this case.
In parallel to this infringement procedure, the Spanish stock market regulator also initiated disciplinary proceedings against the investment firm Gotham and the General Industrial Partners (GIP) fund, both for market manipulation in Grifols shares and for failing to comply with the provisions of the market abuse regulations.
