The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has found in the Galician photovoltaic self-consumption company EiDF indications of possible falsification of documents related to invoices, works or deliveries of materials that directly affect the financial statements of the group.
These conclusions are part of the forensic report commissioned from Deloitte after, in April this year, the company's listing was suspended between delays in the publication of the 2022 annual accounts due to discrepancies with the auditor, PwC.
EiDF, directed by Fernando Romero, had experienced dizzying growth in barely two years. In July 2021, when it debuted on BME Growth, its shares were worth 1.3 euros and its capitalization barely reached 75 million euros. Almost two years later, until the listing was suspended, its value had multiplied by 23, when its titles reached a price of 29.7 euros, which implies a capitalization of 1,721 million.
The company planned to make the leap to the Continuous Market in the first half of this year and had reported that it could carry out a capital increase of more than 100 million. Its capitalization exceeds that of listed companies such as Sacyr, Meliá, NH, Prosegur or Dia.
After going off the first alarms and last week the company sent information to the CNMV that the supervisor found "incomplete" and accompanied by "very relevant omissions", the EiDF was given today as a deadline to publish a forensic report commissioned to Deloitte.
The conclusions of this report appear in a note sent today by the CNMV to BME Growth, in which the company is also required to hire a new CEO, replacing Romero.
The report alludes in its conclusions to "evidence of great importance for shareholders", including that of "possible falsification of documents by the company." The CNMV has also decided to lift the suspension of the listing of the shares next Monday.
EiDF's main activity is photovoltaic self-consumption aimed at SMEs and large companies "in order to offer them an efficient and profitable saving alternative with which to reduce energy costs and thus improve their competitiveness", as indicated by the group itself. He presents himself as a champion of "clean and renewable energy to favor the sustainability of the planet and contribute to the fight against climate change".
It also has its own electricity marketer, Prosol Comercializadora, which sells 100% renewable electricity and places the self-consumption surpluses generated by the facilities in companies.
The Deloitte report has found that three of the four partners of the company analyzed have been able to participate in "falsification of contracts and documents by those responsible for the company in order to justify the lack of control" over the situation of the company .
All the debtors of the company studied in the forensic are directly or indirectly linked to Fernando Romero and "numerous incidents" are identified regarding "invoices and payments for services that could not have been provided or not be justified." All of this was often done "to fulfill the auditor's request for him."
There are even supposed invoices for materials for works that had not been able to obtain the administrative construction authorization. Without this permission, "the execution phase could not be considered started, which is when it is possible to proceed with the delivery of materials," says the report.
There are also discrepancies between the costs recorded in accounting and the actual degree of progress of the works, possible contractual breaches and "not truthful or inconsistent" documentation.
Last week, in the presentation of its accounts that the CNMV has considered insufficient, EiDF said it had closed 2022 with income of 369 million euros and an operating result of 33 million, after undertaking an accounting readjustment of just 1.7 million euro. He also assured that he would sign both a new CEO and new financial and operations managers.
