Markus Braun has resigned as the chief executive of German payments processor Wirecard, a day after the company said it couldn’t account for roughly a quarter of the cash on its balance sheet.
In a terse statement, Wirecard
WDI,
WCAGY,
said Braun resigned by mutual agreement and with immediate effect.
James Freis, the former FinCEN director and ex-chief compliance officer of Deutsche Börse, was named interim chief executive of Wirecard after joining the board only on Thursday night. Wirecard also suspended Jan Marsalek, the chief operating officer.
Shares of German payments processor Wirecard plunged for a second day on Friday, as the troubled firm faces the risk of banks terminating loans.
Wirecard shares dropped 30%, after having dropped over 60% on Thursday when it revealed it was missing €1.9 billion of cash, roughly a quarter of its balance sheet.
The DAX component
DAX,
has said it might be the victim of a fraud. The chief executive of a Philippines bank involved in the investigation told Bloomberg that documents had been forged.
Banks have the ability to terminate €2 billion worth of loans if Wirecard can’t finalize its 2019 accounts on Friday, according to Wirecard. Analysts at UBS said that is likely a reference to a €1.75 billion syndicated loan, on which Wirecard has drawn down €1 billion.
Wirecard said it was “in constructive discussions with its lending banks with regard to the continuation of the credit lines and the further business relationship.”
Wirecard sold a €900 million convertible bond to SoftBank Group in April.
Source : MTV
