Eurofins to share more details on real estate programme in response to Muddy Waters

(Reuters) - Lab testing firm Eurofins said on Thursday it planned to share more information in due course about its real estate programme which had been questioned by short-seller Muddy Waters in its broader allegations against the company last month.

Muddy Waters had questioned Eurofins' financial statements and raised questions over real estate transactions involving the company's controlling shareholder and CEO Gilles Martin.

Eurofins has denied the allegations.

Some of the real estate transactions questioned by the short-seller involved a company which CEO Martin controls, called Analytical Bioventures SCA (ABSCA).

"As made clear in Eurofins’ previous press releases, during the last 10 years, for each site expansion financed by ABSCA on an ABSCA-owned site, the lease terms for these additional properties were assessed to be at arm’s length based on appraisals of comparable properties performed by independent

external experts," Eurofins said on Thursday.

Subject to a vote by some shareholders, Eurofins may buy the real estates site currently owned by ABSCA that it wishes to use long term, the company said.

(Reporting by Olivier Sorgho; Editing by Kim Coghill and Susan Fenton)