Lab testing firm Eurofins slumps after Muddy Waters report, short position
Updates shares, adds detail from short seller report
June 24 (Reuters) -Eurofins' shares slid nearly 25% on Monday after Muddy Waters questioned the French laboratory testing firm's financial statements and said that it had shorted the stock.
Eurofins did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report by short seller Muddy Waters, which also raised questions over real estate transactions involving the company's controlling shareholder and CEO Gilles Martin.
Muddy Waters did not disclose the size of its short position in Eurofins EUFI.PA. Short sellers make money by betting that the price of a security, such as a stock, will fall.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the allegations made in the Muddy Waters report.
Shares in Eurofins, which is in France's blue-chip CAC40 index .FCHI, were suspended shortly after markets opened in Paris. They resumed trading at around 0820 GMT and were 24% lower at 0905 GMT, their lowest level in more than four years.
The Martin family directly and indirectly holds 32.7% of shares in Eurofins with 66% of voting rights, the company's annual report says.
Reporting by Olivier Sorgho; Editing by Louise Heavens and Alexander Smith
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