Brookfield considers US$6.9 billion bid for Grifols; shares dip

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Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is considering a €6.45 billion (US$6.9 billion) bid for Grifols SA, with the drug maker’s board set to meet Tuesday to discuss the potential offer. Grifols’s shares fell.

The transaction committee of Grifols’ board, which oversees talks with Brookfield, has considered the price and concluded that it undervalues the company and it cannot recommend it, according to a statement from Grifols Tuesday. Brookfield had issued a seperate regulatory filing earlier, in which it disclosed that it had signaled a tentative, non-binding price of €10.5 per Class A share of Grifols and €7.62 per class B share.

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Talks continue, Brookfield said. Grifols Class A shares declined as much as 6.7 per cent after the statements were published. They were down 2.94 per cent to €10.57 per share at 12:44 p.m in Madrid.

Brookfield and the Grifols family, which owns about a third of the company, have been in talks since July to take the company private. The approach came after Grifols was hit by a short-seller attack in January, that led to a collapse in its share price and sweeping management changes — including a new chief executive officer, a new chief financial officer and the removal of all family members from daily management positions.

“The deal may fall through,” Álvaro Lenze, an analyst at Spain’s Alantra Partners SA, said in a note to clients. Such “a lowball offer has low chances of succeeding,” Lenze wrote, “unless Brookfield were to sweeten the offer for Class B shares.”

The talks have been dragging as Brookfield undertakes detailed due diligence on the company. The potential €10.5 price had been reported on Monday by Spanish website El Confidencial.

A bid with different prices for the class A and B shares would require a change in bylaws, which would have to be approved by a shareholders meeting.

Minority shareholders have been taking steps to fight for a higher price. A group of investors, which jointly owns 7.7 per cent of Grifols is demanding a seat on the board. One of the investors, hedge fund Mason Capital LLC, opposes Brookfield’s approach, claiming that years of mismanagement and bad governance are being exploited by the bidders to seek a cheaper deal, to the detriment of shareholders.

With assistance from Macarena Muñoz

Bloomberg.com

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