(AOF) – Eurofins (-19.40% to 42.51 euros) posted the biggest drop on the Paris market this Monday, while the American investment fund Muddy Waters announced that it was positioning itself to sell the stock. The action of the bioanalytical services group has thus reached its lowest point in more than 4 years. The fund specializing in short selling has already targeted French companies in the past, including Casino, and more recently Solutions 30 in 2020. The stock then lost half of its value. Contacted by AOF, Eurofins has not yet responded to our requests.
“The confusion and contradictions inherent in its finances and operations make us believe that the group is optimized for malfeasance rather than conventional business,” said Muddy Waters.
“At best, Eurofins has a parasitic majority shareholder who has been siphoning money from the company for two decades,” says the fund, referring to the Martin family, which holds around 32.7% of the capital.
“Eurofins’ financial statements may contain significant overstatements of profits, cash balances and other asset values,” says Muddy Waters of Eurofins, “a company of quirks and contradictions.”
The fund notes that “as Eurofins grows, it makes smaller acquisitions, with 2019 acquisitions averaging $5.0 million in annual revenue, compared to $3.1 million in 2023.” . The value of the vast majority of acquisitions remains below the transparency threshold (disclosure), which makes it possible to maintain a large part of the expenditure in opacity.
“Until 2019, Eurofins claimed that it was not looking to buy real estate because it ‘locks up capital at low rates of return’,” recalls the fund. “Yet, for two decades, Eurofins apparently paid much more to Dr Martin (its founding boss) than if it had bought real estate itself,” he notes.
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