As manager of the Fund for Foreign Investment (FIEX), COFIDES granted GRIFOLS Group a 10.25 million-euro joint venture loan to purchase 49% of the share capital of an Australian-Swiss business group and take a 5 % holding in MEDION DIAGNOSTIC, the group’s main subsidiary in Switzerland. These operations, which were concluded in March 2009, entailed a total joint investment of 25 million euros.

The investee group comprised three Australian and three Swiss companies. Among the most prominent are DIAMED AUSTRALIA, which engages primarily in the distribution of blood bank cards and diagnostic equipment, and MEDION DIAGNOSTIC, a Swiss research company.

This acquisition has enabled GRIFOLS to distribute its diagnostic products in Australia directly, thereby enhancing its position in Asia-Pacific markets.

GRIFOLS Group is a Spanish holding company specializing in the pharmaceutical-hospital industry. Its business focuses on the research, development, manufacture and sale of plasma derivatives (haemoderivatives), fluid therapy products (serum), enteral nutrition, reagents, clinical analysis instruments and medical material. All its products and services are geared to human health and primarily intended for hospital use.

GRIFOLS is headquartered at Barcelona and has 17 international subsidiaries, through which it distributes its products in over 80 countries around the world. In addition to Barcelona and Murcia, the group has production facilities in Los Angeles, U.S.A. In 2008, GRIFOLS’s American subsidiary was granted a FIEX joint venture loan for the amount of 10.78 million dollars to finance the purchase of four new plasma collection centres in the United States.