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GRIFOLS: ACQUISITION OF 25 PLASMA COLLECTION CENTRES IN THE US (ANÁLISIS BANCO SABADELL)

The company has just announced that it has closed an agreement to acquire 25 plasma collection centres in the US (+7.2% increase vs. its current portfolio) from BPL Plasma, Inc for US$ 370 M (€~305 M; ~2.3% market cap and 5.3% NFD). The centres have a licence from the FDA and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and obtained 1 M litres of plasma last year (GRF might use the plasma collected by these centres immediately). The transaction will be funded with the company’s own resources (no debt issuances needed). Moreover, the company claims that it plans to open between 15 and 20 new plasma collection centres in 2021 organically.
MARKET IMPACT
Expected news, as the company had already announced its plans to increase its plasma supply inorganically to meet its target of +30% in 2021. We welcome this announcement as GRF would have immediate access to the plasma collected by these centres (there are no third-party supply contracts).
On the negative side, the price paid per centre (US$ 14.8 M; € 12.2 M) stands above that seen in similar transactions in the US (in August’18, the company paid to Biotest US$ 12 M per centre, although the latter’s performance was lower than BPL’s) and the transaction will mean an increase in debt levels to ~4.7x NFD/EBITDA (vs. 4.5x as of YE2020). That said, we think this deal, which will allow GRF to increase its plasma stocks immediately, should underpin the stock, as it eases some of the pressure on organic growth for the coming quarters (the main uncertainty weighing on the stock and which justified the negative reception of the results released last week).