Mason Capital has filed a complaint with the Spanish regulator about Grifols’ transparency

MADRID (Reuters) – U.S.-based investment fund Mason Capital sent a letter to Spain’s stock market regulator CNMV on Monday demanding more transparency from troubled pharmaceutical company Grifols.

In a statement, the activist fund cited potential conflicts of interest related to related-party transactions by current board members, internal control failures and “rumors” in its recent bond issue that benefited Canadian fund Brookfield at the expense of shareholders.

“We ask the CNMV to consider the benefits of improved transparency for all Grifols shareholders,” Mason Capital said.

The CNMV declined to comment on the letter.

Grifols shares were down about 3% in afternoon trading following the announcement by Mason Capital, which has about a 2.5% stake in Grifols.

In the year In early January 2024, Grifols lost about a third of its value in a matter of hours after short-selling fund Gotham City Research questioned its accounting and debt levels. The share price is not fully recovered.

Barcelona-based Grifols has denied wrongdoing and is suing Gotham City. It also improved its debt value by making a series of governance changes, appointing a new CEO following the incident.

In November, Brookfield scrapped plans to take control of the human-plasma drug developer with the founding family of Grifols, which is worth €6.45 billion. The deal was broken due to a dispute over the price.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Editing by Andre Khalip)