(News Bulletin 247) – The specialist in electronic labels bounces back to the Paris Stock Exchange, after having refuted in a long document, the allegations of Gotham City Research. SES-imagotag had lost nearly 60% on Friday, a victim of this investment fund which published a long vitriolic study on the French group on Thursday.

SES-imagotag offers a little respite Monday at the Paris Stock Exchange. The action of the electronic label specialist resumed 20% around 4:20 p.m., after seeing its value fall by more than half on Friday.

The French group had a nightmarish weekend, targeted by Gotham City Research, an investment fund which accused it of producing “misleading, incorrect and incomplete” financial accounts.

The latter calls into question transactions with BOE Technology Group, a Chinese company allied with SES-imagotag and which owns 32% of the capital of the French company via a subsidiary, judging that these transactions constitute loops and “artificially” inflate the figure. business of the company.

A detailed answer

On the Paris Stock Exchange, the action, which was suspended Thursday when the note from Gotham City Research was published, had dropped nearly 60% when it resumed trading on Friday.

SES-imagotag took the time of the weekend to polish its weapons even if the group had already replied the day after the publication of the short seller’s vitriolic research note. In a 15-page press release published on Monday, the electronic label specialist refuted “in the strongest terms each of the allegations made against it in the report produced by Gotham City Research on Thursday, June 22.

“The fraud referred to in the report does not exist; there is no double counting of circular income with BOE; the consolidation of income from group subsidiaries and the parent company is consistent with income consolidated, which is generated exclusively by sales to external customers. The capitalization of SES-imagotag’s R&D investments complies with IFRS accounting standards”, explains SES-imagotag, adding “that there is no overvaluation of income or profits of the company”.

In this detailed response, the French company also specifies that it reserves “the possibility of exercising all the rights of future legal action if necessary”. But the damage is done. On the stock market, the image of the rising star of the SBF 120 has been tarnished. Before this big blow of firedamp, the title of the specialist in electronic labels peaked not far from its historic highs, reached on June 13 at 172.4 euros.

The AMF gets involved

The file had benefited from a huge spotlight after the signing last April of a historic contract with Walmart. The latter was accompanied by the possibility for the American retail giant to take 10% of the capital of SES-imagotag.

To return to the latest news, the Financial Markets Authority said on Monday “to look closely” at the situation on the sidelines of the presentation of its strategic orientations until 2027, reports AFP.

The policeman of the Paris Stock Exchange argues that “there are rules of the game which we look to respect”, through the voice of its general secretary of the AMF Benoît de Juvigny, in particular on “market abuse, quality of information”, but without wanting to “say more”.