Shares in Eurofins Scientific, the Luxembourg-headquartered testing and laboratory services giant, dropped by as much as 8% in early trading on the Paris and London exchanges today, before recovering some ground to trade around 5% lower by midday. The sell-off was triggered by a report from a US short seller that accused the company of aggressive accounting practices and opaque financial disclosures.
The report, published overnight, alleged that Eurofins had been capitalising certain costs that should have been expensed, thereby inflating its reported profits. It also raised concerns about the firm's substantial net debt, which stood at roughly €4.5bn at the end of last year. Eurofins responded swiftly, issuing a statement calling the allegations 'baseless and deliberately misleading' and confirming that it would take legal action against the report's authors.
For UK investors, the turbulence is notable because Eurofins is a significant constituent of the FTSE 100 index, having moved its primary listing to London in 2021. The stock's decline today knocked roughly 0.3 points off the FTSE 100, which was otherwise trading flat at 8,210. Analysts at Shore Capital noted that while the allegations were serious, they were not new — similar claims had circulated in 2023 — and that Eurofins' revenue growth remained robust at over 7% year-on-year in the most recent quarter.
The broader European biotech and diagnostics sector also felt some spillover, with peers such as Synlab and Sonic Healthcare seeing modest declines on contagion fears. However, many fund managers cautioned against a wholesale sell-off, pointing out that Eurofins operates in a structurally growing market for clinical testing and food safety analysis. 'Short seller reports can create noise, but the underlying business fundamentals here are strong,' said one London-based analyst who asked not to be named.
For UK pension holders, the direct exposure is limited — Eurofins makes up less than 0.5% of the average balanced pension fund. However, the episode serves as a reminder of the volatility that can hit even large-cap stocks when activist short sellers target them. The company's board has scheduled an emergency meeting for tomorrow to discuss its response, and a more detailed rebuttal is expected within days.