(BFM Bourse) – The title of the specialist in restaurant vouchers fell sharply this Friday afternoon.
In a relatively calm market, Edenred shares suddenly plummeted this Friday. Around 3 p.m., the stock fell almost suddenly, and lost more than 7.5% around 5:15 p.m., after even dropping more than 10% during the afternoon.
It is difficult to see a particular element when the group published, a few days ago, dynamic activity for the first quarter.
A financial intermediary believes that this sudden drop can be explained by information from the Italian press concerning the investigation the group is the subject of in Italy.
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New episode in Italy
In February, the Italian authorities opened an investigation targeting Edenred regarding potential fraud and rigging of a 2019 call for tenders. The group reacted by declaring that it was confident in the outcome of this investigation and ensuring that it would stand by the disposition of the Italian authorities to “provide all the necessary explanations”.
This Friday, the Italian press agency Ansa reported that “the Rome prosecutor’s office (had) requested the indictment of four people, former managers of Edenred Italia”, a local subsidiary of Edenred.
“Prosecutor Carlo Villani accuses them of aggravated fraud, bid rigging as part of a criminal association and administrative offenses,” adds the agency.
“The procedure is continuing and we suspect that it was necessary to give faces to the accusations made by the Italian justice system. So this is not surprising. But we can understand that investors react negatively because they cannot do not want press information every two months to recall this issue which remains bad press for the group and means that the Edenred share may be ‘dead money’ (a stock with no potential, Editor’s note) for several months’, analyzes the previously mentioned financial intermediary.
Edenred reacted in a statement sent to several media including BFM Bourse, stressing that the indictment of the four former managers constitutes “a step” which is “an expected event in the context of the investigation. It does not provide any new element.
“The media simply bounced back following a technical communication made by the prosecutor’s office as part of the transmission of the file to the judge as planned,” adds the CAC 40 group.
“Edenred remains available to the Italian judicial authorities to provide all necessary explanations,” the company concluded in an email.
On Tuesday, Edenred provided some information about the investigation it is under in Italy. The company explained, in a presentation, that the case was being examined by the criminal court with a first instance judgment which could be rendered in approximately two years. The end of the dispute with the three levels of jurisdiction (instance, appeal, cassation) could occur within four to five years, the company estimated.
Edenred also explained that it had put in place new procedures for calls for tenders since February, the date of the opening of the investigation in Italy, with a new working framework currently prepared with the assistance of a consulting firm. audit and which will be deployed in the second half of the year. The company is also conducting a review of its processes using a risk matrix.
Julien Marion – ©2024 BFM Bourse
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