Spanish pharmaceuticals firm Grifols reports 30% drop in nine-month profit

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols reported a 30% drop in nine-month net profit on Tuesday, due in part to acquisition costs.

Grifols said it was still on track to meet its full-year financial targets, but its shares fell 4.2% in morning trade.

The company, which uses blood plasma to make medicines, saw its business severely hit by the pandemic as blood collection was halted in many countries.

Brokerage CM Capital Markets said in a note to investors that Grifols' net profit of 188 million euros ($187.7 million) for January-September was below consensus estimates.

Grifols completed its 1.6 billion euro takeover of German rival Biotest in the first half of this year.

The company said its revenue increased 9.5% to 4.4 billion euros in the first nine months of the year, thanks to a positive performance of its biopharma department and a 25% increase in plasma collections.

The operating results were above expectations, CM Capital Markets said.

Grifols said it expects to keep reducing its net debt down to 7.9 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by the end of the year.

Its net debt stood at 9.4 billion euros in September, or 8.6 times its EBITDA, slightly less than the 9 times EBITDA at the end of June.

Last month Grifols appointed a new executive chairman as it seeks to revive investor confidence after its shares dropped by almost half this year.

Grifols has said the current share price does not support a capital increase.

($1 = 1.0016 euros)

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Susan Fenton)