BERLIN, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Wirecard CEO Markus Braun defended his company's crisis management and presented his vision of future commerce in front of almost 2,000 shareholders at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Wirecard on Tuesday.
"Digitalization is the introduction of worldwide standards," said Braun. In his opinion, mobile and stationary shopping would be fully linked as "unified commerce" across all systems in the future.
Wirecard's main business is the processing of cashless payments both online and in stores. At the end of March, around 293,000 merchants were connected to the German payment provider's services globally.
At the AGM, Braun also sought an approval for the Japanese Softbank Group to invest 900 million euros (1 billion U.S. dollars) in Wirecard and acquire around 5.6 percent of Wirecard's share capital through a convertible bond.
"Our shareholders should be deliberately involved," vowed Braun. With the support of Softbank, "the two white spots in Asia", namely Japan and South Korea, could be opened up as a market for Wirecard in the future.
In case of a successful deal, the Softbank Group would become one of Wirecard's largest shareholders along with Braun, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock.
Despite moving up to Germany's top-30 index DAX and solid business figures, Wirecard recently made negative headlines with allegations of fraud, money laundering and account manipulation in Singapore.
"I would like to make it clear here that these accusations did not prove to be true," Braun emphasized during the AGM. Although there had been irregularities in bookings, "they were quality defects and not compliance violations."
Ingo Speich of German investment group Deka voiced sharp criticism of the events surrounding the Singapore allegations. Wirecard had "become the playball of the markets". According to Speich, the fluctuation range of the share price was frightening for a DAX company.
Between the end of September 2018, when the share was included in the DAX, and mid-February 2019, shares of Wirecard had lost half their value. Over the past six weeks, however, the share price has almost return to its former level.
"Wirecard is managed like a start-up," criticized Speich. The company needed to be brought up to the quality standard of a DAX group.
In response to the criticism, Supervisory Board Chairman Matthias Wulf stressed that the board had already professionalized itself comprehensively and had always been informed of the processing of the accusations in Singapore.
Daniela Bergdolt of Germany's leading association for private investors (DSW) also expressed doubts about the crisis communication. "It's not enough to stomp your foot like a defiant child and say it was not me, I did not do anything."
Bergdolt also attacked Wirecard's compliance system. "Unfortunately, your structures are still not adapted to the size of the company and are certainly not adapted to your status as a DAX company."
Despite all the criticism, Wirecard's business is going well. Braun recently raised the profit forecast slightly and is now targeting at a pre-tax profit of 760 to 810 million euros in 2019. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars)
