Wirecard Sells Businesses in UK, Brazil
21 August 2020 - 05:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Pietro Lombardi
Collapsed German payments company Wirecard AG has reached
agreements to sell its Brazilian business as well as assets in the
U.K., kicking off the company's breakup in the wake of an
accounting scandal that torpedoed the now-insolvent fintech
giant.
An agreement was signed to sell Wirecard Brazil to a subsidiary
of PagSeguro Digital Ltd., a Brazilian, U.S.-listed fintech,
insolvency administrators said Friday. Brazilian regulators haven't
yet given the deal the green light.
"It is particularly pleasing that the sale of Wirecard Brazil
has been the first success with respect to the sale of assets,
because the framework conditions of the Wirecard insolvency
proceedings have been, and still are, very difficult," preliminary
insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe said.
Moreover, an agreement in principle was reached with Railsbank
Technology Limited. Under the agreement, the banking platform
developer will buy some customer-relationship and other assets
belonging to Wirecard's U.K. subsidiary Wirecard Card Solutions
Ltd, whose operations include prepaid cards and electronic payment
transactions.
The asset sales come in the wake of Wirecard's rapid downfall.
The company, which filed for insolvency in June after saying that
more than $2 billion missing from its balance sheet probably didn't
exist, will be kicked out of Germany's blue-chip DAX index as of
Monday, roughly two years after joining the prestigious index.
Talks are open for the sale of other assets. The sale of the
company's Wirecard North America Inc subsidiary "is also well
advanced," Mr. Jaffe said. Final offers are expected shortly.
There are also negotiations with investors interested in the
company's core acquiring and issuing business.
"There are several notable interested parties who have submitted
indicative offers," Mr. Jaffe said.
Write to Pietro Lombardi at pietro.lombardi@dowjones.com;
@pietrolombard10
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2020 11:16 ET (15:16 GMT)
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