Canadian fund drops bid for Spanish pharma firm Grifols

MADRID — Canadian investment fund Brookfield said Wednesday it has dropped its bid for Spanish pharmaceutical firm Grifols following disagreement over its valuation.

Brookfield and the Grifols family, which owns about a third of the Barcelona-based company that makes medicine derived from blood plasma, have since July been in talks to take it private.

Earlier this month Brookfield made a 6.45-billion-euro bid for Grifols, offering a tentative non-binding price of 10.50 euros ($11) per share.

Grifols swiftly rejected the bid, saying it "significantly underestimated the fundamental prospects and long-term potential" of the company.

In a statement sent to Spanish stock market regulator CNMV, Brookfield said it was "not in a position to continue with a potential offer" for Grifols.

Grifols said its board agreed that "it is not feasible that the transaction goes ahead" and remains focused on "improving the company's long-term value".

Its share price plunged in January after US hedge fund Gotham City released a research note accusing the company of "manipulating" its reported debt and operational results to "artificially reduce" its debt ratio, and therefore its financing costs.

Grifols has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Gotham City is a prominent "short-seller" hedge fund that borrows stock in a company and sells it, hoping to buy it back cheaper to return it to the lender and pocket the difference.

Grifols traces its history back to 1909, first as a blood analysis and transfusion laboratory before specialising in products derived from blood plasma.

It is present in more than 30 countries including Australia, the United States and Japan. It posted revenue of 6.6 billion euros in 2023, a 10.9 per cent increase over the previous year.