Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2014, as breaking news from 6 July 2014 about Gowex. Later developments in the Gowex case, such as the investigation and proceedings, are not covered.
It seems this is how the doubts about the state of Gowex’s accounts come to an end. In a regulatory filing published by Bolsas y Mercados in the early hours of Sunday, the company acknowledges that its accounts do not give a true and fair view, revokes the powers of its CEO, Jenaro García, and accepts his resignation.
The company also announces its intention to file for voluntary insolvency proceedings (the Spanish concurso de acreedores), acknowledging that it will probably be unable to meet its current debts as they fall due.
This is how the story ends for one of the companies considered among the fastest-growing in Spain in recent years, and one whose share price rose the most. In the end, everything suggests that the report by Gotham City Research, which accused the company of being the new Pescanova and claimed that 90% of its sales did not exist, may have been completely accurate point by point.
Although we preferred not to take a position and gave the company the benefit of the doubt, the truth is that on the stock market a firm rarely launches a bearish attack on a company with a report full of falsehoods, because that is a crime.
Without a doubt, this is a bombshell that once again leaves Spanish regulators and the lack of supervision of listed companies in a bad light, because once again thousands of investors have found that the company in which they had confidently invested their money has turned out to be a complete and utter fraud.
Featured image: Álvaro Ibáñez, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
