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Headquarters of the financial service provider Grenke
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
The leasing specialist Grenke has encountered problems in-house.
The company announced that possible deficiencies in the compliance organization and internal auditing were discovered during ongoing audits.
Group board member Mark Kindermann is leaving the management team with immediate effect.
The price of the Grenke share fell by up to 37 percent.
In 2020, the Grenke share had already lost almost 60 percent of its value as a result of the corona pandemic and a SPIEGEL report on allegations of manipulation against the group.
The Grenke Group left open in the notification which critical points were specifically discovered during the audit.
Kindermann had pointed out to the supervisory board that the preliminary evaluations of the internal processes should be revised after the end of the audits, it only said.
"In order to avoid a dispute about the justification and the materiality of these points of criticism before the end of the audits and to keep the company away from potential damage from them, Mr. Kindermann resigned his mandate today", announced the company.
Kindermann started at Grenke in 1990 and was later promoted to the board.
Since 2006 he has been responsible for the corporate areas of administration, human resources, accounting, quality management, internal services and exploitation as well as the administration of real estate and buildings.
Last year, Grenke was caught in the crossfire of short sellers who accused the company of manipulation.
Grenke rejected the allegations, but still had them examined internally.
In mid-December, the company was relieved of the findings of the auditing firm Warth & Klein Grant Thornton (WKGT) on essential points.
Apparently irregularities were discovered after all.
The group recently reorganized the responsibilities of the board.
Internal auditing is now directly subordinate to Antje Leminsky, Chief Executive Officer.
In addition, a few weeks ago the company appointed Isabel Rösler, a qualified auditor, to its management as head of risk.
She is now responsible for all of the company's compliance functions.
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