The sale of Wirecard shares will be much more difficult from November 15th.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt It is a technical end – with consequences for the remaining investors. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange revokes the admission of Wirecard shares to the regulated market, the so-called General Standard, within a month. These can then no longer be traded on the largest German stock exchange.
“The management of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange decided on October 8th, 2021 to discontinue the listing of the shares in the regulated market at the end of November 15th, 2021”, it says in a press release. At the same time, “the price determination of the ordinary bearer shares (…) will be discontinued”. Upon request, no comment was initially received from the exchange.
This is a bad signal for the remaining shareholders of Wirecard AG. In theory, their share ownership in the group under insolvency administration remains untouched. Selling the paper is, however, made much more difficult, and a market price can hardly be established after the delisting.
The Wirecard share was quoted on Wednesday afternoon at 17 cents and thus around five percent in the red. At its record high in September 2018, it was worth around 198 euros. After discovering a billion-dollar balance sheet fraud in June 2020, the group plunged into bankruptcy within seven days. CEO Markus Braun is in custody, Asia boss Jan Marsalek is on the run.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
In the interests of the shareholders and the other creditors of the group, the insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé tries to exploit as many of the assets of the former stock market star as possible. In July he sold the Indian subsidiary for a single-digit million amount. The North American business brought in the largest amount, over 300 million euros. However, it is considered unlikely that shareholders will be reimbursed for a large part of their losses as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
As it became known in May, they could even have to pay back around 47 million euros in dividends if the annual reports for 2017 and 2018 are annulled. A spokesman for Jaffé did not want to comment on the announced delisting of the share by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
In August 2020, the Wirecard share had already flown out of the most important German share index, the Dax. Trading in the electronic trading segment Xetra of Deutsche Börse ended in January 2021.
More: “It’s crazy …”: The last 48 hours from Wirecard