The pharmaceutical group Grifols has sent to the CNMV an expansion of its financial information that increases its debt ratio: it goes from 6.3 times the operating profit or EBITDA that it initially reported to 8.4 times, and places the total net debt at the balance at 10,527 million euros.
The additional information sent by the company increases the debt on which this ratio is calculated to 1,100 million euros, when accounting for the rental commitments of its buildings that it did not previously include. Grifols, in addition, reduces its operating profit or EBITDA by 234 million, by now excluding from its calculation the impact of the restructuring program, which will materialize in cost savings starting this year.
The Catalan group thus meets the requirement of the National Securities Market Commission, which on April 4 asked it to expand the information it provides to investors on alternative measures of performance and on its net financial debts.
The regulator noted “deficiencies” in the financial information provided by the group, but did not consider them relevant enough to make it necessary to reformulate its accounts and only asked for more transparency.
The rental commitments, as well as the explanation that the restructuring had not yet increased profits in 2023, were already included in the company’s accounts, but not in the ebitda it published, which it described as “adjusted ebitda.” According to the company, in calculating the operating profit it published it followed the criteria agreed upon with its creditor entities.
“To be consistent with the information provided in previous periods, Grifols will continue to report its debt ratio according to the criteria of the credit agreement,” the company said in a statement. The company also assured that it “commits to fully comply with the guidelines and recommendations of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the CNMV.”
The main accounting adjustment that Grifols has made at the request of the regulator is to record as debt the financial leases it pays for the rental of its plasma donation centers. Although it is not a financial debt, since it is a payment commitment, accounting regulations require it to be included as debt on the balance sheet.
Grifols also details the impact on its debt and on its operating profit or EBITDA of the companies that own the BPC and Haema plasma centers, which are 100% owned by Scranton, a company linked to the founding family, but which it consolidates since It has a purchase option and manages them, as well as its diagnostic subsidiary GDS, of which it owns 66%, and its German subsidiary Biotest, of which it controls 70%.
Applying the criteria requested by the CNMV, the company has recalculated the operating profit or EBITDA of these companies, which is reduced from 242 to 137 million euros. With the consolidation and internal compensation of assets and liabilities, these companies reduced the group’s global debt by 428 million euros, a reduction that with the new criteria will be 289 million.