The family behind Grifols, the Spanish healthcare conglomerate with a market value of 6 billion euros that was rocked by fraud allegations earlier this year, is considering delisting the company from the stock exchange in collaboration with Brookfield from Canada.
The Spanish market supervisory authority suspended trading in Grifols shares on Monday after the company announced that the Grifols family and Brookfield had requested access to the company's books to conduct "due diligence in connection with a potential takeover.
Grifols shares listed in Madrid suffered a plunge in January when Gotham City Research, a UK-based short seller, accused the pharmaceutical manufacturer of artificially manipulating its debts and profits through transactions with a company linked to the Grifols family.
Barcelona-based Grifols denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations 'false information and speculation'.
The accusations wiped billions off Grifols' market value, and the shares are still trading 37 percent below their pre-report levels following the Gotham City release. Grifols is also listed on the Nasdaq.
Brookfield stated in a declaration that it had "exploratory discussions" with certain Grifols shareholders about a possible joint takeover bid.
Grifols has so far failed to dispel investors’ doubts since the actions of Gotham City, despite removing members of the founding family from leadership positions and appointing a new CEO, Nacho Abia, who came from Olympus.
Regarding the possible acquisition, Grifols stated that it "does not know if such a transaction will take place and is completely unclear about the terms and conditions under which such a transaction would occur.
Grifols, which traces its origins back to 1909, manufactures medicines from blood plasma and has a strong presence in the USA. The USA is now Grifols' most important market, accounting for three-fifths of its revenue and home to about two-thirds of its 26,000 employees.
The attack on the company was controversial in Spain, where criticism from short sellers is rare.
The allegations from Gotham City focused on the sale of two companies to Scranton Enterprises, a family business. Gotham City claimed that Grifols continued to report profits from the units, BPC Plasma and Haema, in its consolidated financial statements and described the accounting method as "materially misleading and incorrect.
