SES-imagotag shares were suspended from trading on the Paris Bourse on Thursday, following an attack on the French specialist in electronic retail labels by the activist fund Gotham City Research.

Gotham published a report this morning, already consulted more than 3,000 times, calling into question the group's business model, as well as the quality of its results.

In particular, the American fund questions the links between SES-imagotag and the Chinese group BOE, which is at once its 'largest shareholder, its main supplier, one of its most important customers, its joint venture partner, and also sits on the audit committee'.

Under such conditions, "the risk of financial malfeasance is high", says Gotham.

The short-selling fund also questions the quality of the results, believing that the company's financial statements are "materially misleading, incorrect and deficient".

In particular, it believes that the Ebitda published for the 2022 financial year is overstated by up to 106%.

As for the recent contract signed with US retail giant Walmart, Gotham asserts that the agreement is not profitable for SES, estimating that the company only receives 5.30 euros for each electronic label supplied, whereas the unit cost of the product is 6.66 euros.

From Gotham's point of view, the stock would simply have to trade in a range of 15 to 30 euros if it were to trade in line with the valuation levels of its comparables.

No comment could be obtained from SES-imagotag on Thursday morning.

For the record, Gotham City published a similar report in 2014 concerning Spanish ISP Gowex, which was forced to file for bankruptcy in the aftermath.

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