The name Gotham City Research is inseparable from that of its victims: Grifols, Gowex, Wirecard or Ses-Imagotag, among others. Bearish reports usually leave an indelible mark on the companies that disseminate them. According to what the investment company itself announced on Twitter (formerly X), there will be a new delivery tomorrow – turbulence is guaranteed. The only clue they have given so far, besides the date of their next analysis, is that the company concerned will be European.
“New report tomorrow. Europe”, warned with this brief message on the social network. Gotham City Research is an investment firm that looks for weaknesses in companies and conducts in-depth investigations to highlight them. Their strategy is to bet against these companies and announce it so that this movement is amplified in the market.
One of its most recent and notorious victims has been the Catalan Grifols. The pharmaceutical company’s case jumped in January, but it remains as strong as ever today. Precisely this Wednesday, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) opened a sanctions file against the Spanish and American companies. To Grifols for not providing truthful or accurate information and to Gotham for market manipulation.
It all started with the report “Grifols SA: Scranton and undisclosed debts”, in which Gotham stated that the Catalan company’s debt was higher than that reflected in its accounts, that the profits were also recorded in Scranton Enterprises, the holding of the family that owned it and that, ultimately, its shares were worth zero euros.
Although volatility has decreased, the blood products company has not yet recovered. A day before the bearish attack, its shares closed at 14.2 euros and are now worth 9.4 euros. In other words, the company It lost a third of its stock market value. In addition, there have been changes in the company’s management and it is now planned to delist it from the stock exchange. Brookfield is negotiating a takeover bid with the family.
But Grifols is just one example of the consequences of Gotham targeting a company. Another famous case is Gowex. This was a Wi-Fi network company that turned out to be a scam. One of the Bear Fund’s findings was that 90% of the revenue was fabricated. As a result, the company’s accounts and milestones were proven to be false and it ended up going bankrupt.
Another similar example is that of the German payment services company Wirecard. In this case, Gotham City did not publish any report. Just before Grifols, its attack targeted a French company. It is the queen of electronic labeling, SES-Imagotag, which seduced partners such as Walmart or Amazon. The bassist also accused it of accounting irregularities and conflicts of interest with several members of the board of directors.
Gotham usually leaves its victims shaken, although a minority have managed to escape its bearish clutches without much scratching. Regardless, its name generally means turbulence.
