Grifols says founding family, Brookfield looking to delist drugmaker
Repeats story first published on Monday
By Andres Gonzalez, David Latona, Joan Faus
LONDON/MADRID/BARCELONA, July 8 (Reuters) -The Grifols family and Canadian fund Brookfield BN.TO have agreed to evaluate a possible joint takeover bid for beleaguered Spanish drugmaker Grifols GRLS.MC with the intent to delist it, the companies said in regulatory filings on Monday.
Grifols said its board held an extraordinary meeting over the weekend to study a preliminary offer presented by Brookfield and the Grifols founding family, which holds a stake of around 30%, according to the latest data by Spanish securities regulator CNMV.
Brookfield and the family have asked the board for access to certain company information for due diligence before potentially buying all of Grifols' shares, Brookfield and Grifols said in the filings.
Brookfield is considering investing more than 5 billion euros ($5.41 billion) in Grifols, with part of that amount to refinance and restructure the company's debt, according to a source close to the conversations.
The Canadian-based fund will carry out the deal alongside other investors in its funds, the source said.
The Grifols family is not planning to sell its stake, the source said.
Grifols' net financial debt reached 10.9 billion euros in the first quarter of this year, around 400 million euros higher than in the prior quarter.
Grifols and Brookfield declined to comment.
The conversation between the Grifols family and Brookfield started more than a year ago, the source said, before short-seller fund Gotham City Research released several reports that have erased a third of Grifols' value.
Grifols' shares closed 9.7% higher on Spain's blue-chip index Ibex 35 .IBEX on Monday.
The deal could be worth around 5.5 billion euros ($5.96 billion), according to Cinco Dias newspaper which first reported on the deal.
Grifols' market capitalization reached 6.2 billion euros on Monday.
Brookfield said the talks over the joint offer could end with Grifols delisted from the Spanish stock exchange and the Nasdaq.
"There is no agreement or decision regarding a potential transaction or the related terms and conditions," Brookfield said, adding there was no guarantee there would be a final offer.
Grifols also said it did not know if a transaction will take place or the terms under which it could be carried out.
Its main shareholders - in addition to the descendants of the three brothers who took the company from a small family-owned lab in Barcelona to a global player in the plasma derivatives business - include the funds Capital Research and Management Company, BlackRock, Europacific Growth Fund and Rokos Global Macro Master Fund, according to Spain's stock market regulator.
Since early January, short-seller fund Gotham City Research has released several reports accusing Grifols of overstating earnings and understating debt.
Following the reports, Grifols announced governance changes and revised its reported leverage higher after market supervisor CNMV required that it change its calculations.
Last week, Grifols appointed Rahul Srinivasan as chief financial officer in a management reshuffle and Scranton Enterprises, an investment vehicle partly tied to the Grifols family, reached an agreement with a private investor to refinance 377 million euros of debt in one of its units.
($1 = 0.9229 euro)
Reporting by David Latona in Madrid, Andrés González in London and Joan Faus in Barcelona; Additional reporting by Marta Serafinko
Editing by Louise Heavens, Arun Koyyur, Anousha Sakoui and Matthew Lewis
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.