The CNMV published its report of conclusions on the Grifols case this Thursday, ruling out that the company has made errors in its accounting or fraud, in addition to exempting it from having to reformulate its annual accounts for recent years. However, the supervisor detects a host of omissions and “relevant deficiencies” in its financial reports, especially in relation to the alternative performance measures (APM) with which Grifols expresses issues such as leverage, financial debt or Ebitda.
“The most relevant deficiency consists, in the opinion of the CNMV, in the use of adjusted EBITDA without excluding the results attributable to non-controlled interests when explaining the financial leverage ratio of the Grifols group and its financial capacity to satisfy the debt, which is not in accordance with the legal obligations to reflect useful, relevant, objective and neutral information,” the supervisor points out in his conclusions that he sent this Thursday at 2:32 p.m. to the pharmaceutical company, with the order that post it before 8:00 p.m.
The CNMV considers that Grifols was also not publishing the necessary information so that investors could calculate the EBITDA (earnings before interest, amortization and depreciation) excluding said results attributable to non-controlled interests. In this sense, the organization urges Grifols to “correct the use it makes of its financial information”, for example, reducing the number of Ebitda versions it uses, and that it should give greater prominence in its reports to traditional sales metrics. . , debt, Ebitda and profit to avoid confusion among investors.
