Germany’s fintech star falls after missing billions at Wirecard

Bloomberg

Just a month ago, the chief executive officer of Wirecard AG boasted on Twitter that the future would still be bright for the digital payments company when “all the noise and dust settles.”
At the time, Markus Braun was a paper billionaire. But over the course of a couple of days, the fintech veteran has been forced to step-down as CEO and seen the value of his stake dwindle after a two-day stock rout.
Braun’s position at the German payments company became untenable after revelations that about $2.1 billion — two-thirds of 2019 revenue and about a quarter of the firm’s consolidated balance sheet — had gone missing. Two Asian banks that were supposed to be holding the money it denied any business relationship with Wirecard, raising fresh questions about the
embattled company.
After years of allegations of wrongdoing, Bruan was at the center of the controversy, with repeated assurances that Wirecard’s accounts were above the board, despite Wirecard headquarters being searched in early June by German prosecutors as part of a criminal probe involving company’s senior management.
The executive, who’s also the company’s largest shareholder, will now be replaced on an interim basis by James Freis, who was originally appointed in May to take the new role of chief compliance officer.
Freis is stepping into an almost unprecedented situation. The interim CEO wasn’t supposed to join until July, when he was going to be responsible for a newly created department called “Integrity, Legal and Compliance.”
Previously head of compliance at Deutsche Boerse AG, Fries held the position of director of the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, where he was responsible for the regulation of financial institutions.
He will need to act fast to restore trust and reassure creditors. Failure to publish audited results triggers potential termination of up to 2 billion euros in loans. Wirecard said it is in “constructive” talks with its banks to continue credit lines and the
further business relationship.
“A change in management was warranted for some time and following yesterday’s events and the further decline in Wirecard shares today, we are not surprised that the CEO is stepping down,” said Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “There may be no quick fix.”
Wirecard has excellent employees, a strong business model, outstanding technology and abundant resources to ensure a great future.
The story of Wirecard’s woes trace back to Braun, who may have been too invested in the company, making him either unwilling or unable to see issues and take corrective measures.
When Braun joined Wirecard in 2002, the payments company had a few dozen employees and in its early years serviced mainly clients active in online gambling and porn. The Austrian national since engineered a growth story by acquiring companies in the U.S. and Asia. Today, customers include Germany’s most successful soccer club Bayern Munich, French mobile phone carrier Orange SA and Swedish furniture giant Ikea.

In September 2018, Wirecard replaced Commerzbank AG in Germany’s elite DAX index, making Braun a star of the country’s digital ambitions.

“Markus Braun’s resignation was overdue,” said Danyal Bayaz, a lawmaker with Germany’s Greens. “Wirecard is not a small fintech, but a DAX member.”

Unlike U.S. tech billionaires, Braun usually sports a suit instead of a hoodie, but generally shuns wearing a tie. He got a degree in computer science from the Technical University of Vienna and a doctorate in social and economic sciences. He worked as a management consultant at KPMG before joining Wirecard.

Wirecard shares on rocky path for over a year now
Even after winning SoftBank Group Corp. as an investor in April last year, Braun had been unable to re-establish trust following a series of articles in early 2019 by the Financial Times about potential fraud. Despite aggressive denials and allegations of market manipulation leveled at the reporter, the company acknowledged irregularities following an independent investigation that had access only to limited information.

Braun’s response to the latest crisis followed a similar pattern: downplay or dismiss the allegations, paint the company as a victim and attempt to switch over to business as usual.

At 8:19 a.m. on Thursday — a time when investors were nervously awaiting delayed 2019 financial results — Wirecard posted on Twitter about how Chinese shopping trends were favoring its business model, sparking enraged comments as the stock collapse took shape hours later.

The company was well aware of the issue at the time of the feel-good tweet. Chief Operating Officer Jan Marsalek, who has been temporarily suspended, had tried to get in touch with the two Asian banks and trustees over the past two days to recover the missing money, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In the direct aftermath, Braun pointed the finger at everyone but himself.

“It is currently unclear whether fraudulent transactions to the detriment of Wirecard AG have occurred,” he said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the company will file a complaint against unnamed persons. “It cannot be ruled out that Wirecard has been the victim in a substantial case of fraud,” he said later.