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Wirecard headquarters in Aschheim near Munich: Creditors' meeting in the brewery cellar
Photo:
Michael Dalder / REUTERS
The insolvent Wirecard Group is faced with billions in claims from its creditors.
At the core company of the insolvent payment processor alone, Wirecard AG, it is just under 12.5 billion euros.
The Munich District Court announced that the sum was claimed at the creditors' meeting on the assets of the company that collapsed in a financial scandal.
Further claims exist against other Wirecard companies.
For this, meetings of the creditors are scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday.
The fund company DWS is asserting claims of more than 600 million euros in insolvency proceedings.
The creditors are only likely to see a fraction of their claims again.
Insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé reported at the meeting in Munich's Löwenbräukeller about the course of the proceedings so far, which had been opened at the end of August.
The meeting must take place within three months of the start of the proceedings.
Jaffé has already sold some foreign subsidiaries for the benefit of the creditors.
Most recently he kicked off the European core business, the Spanish bank Santander was awarded the contract.
Shareholders hope for damages
The former DAX group filed for bankruptcy in June after admitting phantom deals, and banks and investors have lost more than three billion euros, according to calculations by the Munich public prosecutor.
According to information from financial circles, the insolvency administrator has earned around half a billion euros from the sale of parts of the company and technology.
Many shareholders have also filed claims.
This was announced by lawyers and the DSW investors' association.
They hope that the insolvency administrator will reimburse them at least part of the billions lost in the foreseeable future: "I experienced proceedings when I was 14, 18, even 20," said Munich lawyer Peter Mattil, who represents the aggrieved shareholders.
"But if there is a fortune that can be distributed among the creditors, it can happen after two or three years."
From a legal perspective, shareholders are not creditors of an insolvent company, but shareholders - as such, they often get nothing in insolvency proceedings.
However, if it is a major fraud case, as with Wirecard, shareholders can register their claims for damages with the insolvency administrator, as a DWS spokesman said.
The main question for creditors and shareholders: how much money can they expect?
One thing is clear: in addition to the losses suffered by lending banks, investors, suppliers and other business partners, there are also the disproportionately higher losses in the price of Wirecard shares: the company was worth more than 23 billion euros when it entered the Dax in September 2018, after the bankruptcy and the share price fall, it was less than 100 million.
In addition to institutional investors, this also affected a large number of small shareholders.
Auditors should be able to testify in the Bundestag
Meanwhile, the pressure on ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun is growing.
According to the Munich public prosecutor's office, he is the central figure in the balance sheet fraud case - and could now also have to fear unpleasant revelations before the Bundestag investigative committee.
Insolvency administrator Jaffé released five named representatives of the auditing companies Ernst & Young and KPMG from their duty of confidentiality, as reported by the Reuters news agency, citing a letter to the Bundestag committee.
The imprisoned ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun, who is supposed to testify personally to the committee on Thursday, is not subject to any confidentiality obligation.
E&Y auditors are expected to explain why they confirmed € 1.9 billion of non-existent cash.
Braun resigned in June after a corresponding deficit was discovered in the balance sheet.
The public prosecutor's office in Munich accuses Braun and other Wirecard managers of commercial gang fraud, falsification of accounts and market manipulation.
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apr / Reuters / dpa
