Month: June 2020

…read more […]

The once high-flying payments firm Wirecard files for insolvency after a €1.9bn accounting scandal. …read more […]

From deploying experts amid global travel restrictions to managing extreme storage conditions, and even inventing new kinds of vials and syringes for billions of doses, the path is strewn with formidable hurdles, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen vaccine developers and their backers. Any hitch in an untested supply chain – which could stretch from Pune in India to England’s Oxford and Baltimore in the United States – could torpedo or delay the complex process. Col. Nelson Michael, director of the U.S. Army’s Center for Infectious Disease Research who is working on the government’s “Warp …read more […]

Hashtag Investing is an exclusive social media network offering a community and tools for DIY investors. In this review of Hashtag Investing, we’ll take you inside the platform and let you know the pros and cons.

What Is Hashtag Investing?
Hashtag investing is a social media tool specifically designed for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investors. Like other social media tools, it helps to connect people all over the country and even internationally. But what differentiates this one is that its sole focus is on investing.
The point is to connect DIY investors and stock traders with other people who are interested in investing. The community …read more […]

We’ve been missing the sea a lot these days.
In our younger years, we spent hundreds of days rising up and down on the swells far beyond the sight of land.
It’s a beautiful thing, way out there.
Perhaps we love it because the ocean doesn’t show the wear of time.
It’s like no other place on earth.
The waves and the water today look the same as they did a century ago… two centuries ago… and far longer.
For ages, man has cut his wake through the sea.
In that instant, the water splashes and boils behind him. Behind his craft, the stir is a hellish …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Wirecard AG’s main banks are facing potential losses on about 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) of loans to the scandal-hit fintech after it started insolvency proceedings.A group of about 15 banks led by ABN Amro Bank NV, Commerzbank AG and ING Groep NV had been negotiating next steps with the firm on a 1.75 billion-euro facility that was about 90% drawn, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this week. Talks on next steps with lenders came to an abrupt halt with the insolvency filing that surprised some of the banks, people with knowledge of the matter …read more […]

Top news and what to watch in the markets on Thursday, June 25, 2020. …read more […]

* Founded in 1999, Munich-based Wirecard has 5,800 employees in 26 countries around the world. * Wirecard’s expansion was driven by its long-serving chief executive and leading shareholder Markus Braun, an Austrian who led the company since 2002 until he resigned last Friday. * In Feb. 2019, Singapore police said they were looking into reports by the Financial Times of alleged financial irregularities at Wirecard’s local office, allegations that had driven its shares sharply lower. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Wirecard AG filed for insolvency proceedings on Thursday after a massive accounting scandal brought the payments company to its knees.Wirecard management cited over-indebtedness as the reason behind the decision to seek for court protection in Munich, according to a statement. The company also said is considering whether the insolvency proceedings should also be applied to its subsidiaries.The company’s rapid fall from grace comes after it admitted that 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) went missing from its balance sheet, and is a major setback for Germany’s burgeoning tech scene and a debacle for investors. In less than a week, …read more […]

Wirecard said on Thursday it was filing for insolvency after disclosing a $2.1 billion financial hole in its accounts, becoming the first sitting member of Germany’s blue-chip share index to go out of business. Shares were suspended by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange before the news. Wirecard said in a two-paragraph statement that its new management had decided to apply for insolvency at a Munich court “due to impending insolvency and over-indebtedness”. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s biggest stockholder said he’d vote in favor of a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) government bailout, giving the rescue plan a shot of momentum and boosting the airline’s shares and bonds on the eve of a crunch vote.Billionaire Heinz Hermann Thiele told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he’d support the package at Thursday’s special shareholder meeting, ending days of frenzied speculation about his intentions. He had earlier criticized a steep discount being granted to the German government on a 20% stake, and held the votes to single-handedly stop the share sale.“I will vote in favor of the …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Germany’s financial watchdog took more than a year to report Wirecard AG for suspected market manipulation after receiving a tip-off from a whistle-blower about irregularities at the payments company.BaFin received documents on Wirecard from an anonymous source in late January 2019 and evaluated them along with a Financial Times report on alleged accounting issues at the company, Germany’s Finance Ministry said in a written response to questions from lawmakers.The ministry’s reply, which is dated April 9, didn’t specify what the documents contained and on what day BaFin received them.The German regulator has come under intense criticism for its …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son ended his company’s annual shareholder meeting with a surprise Thursday by announcing he’s stepping down from the board of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.The billionaire said his departure shouldn’t be interpreted as signifying any disagreements, even though Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma is quitting SoftBank’s board at the same time. Ma and Son have maintained a close friendship since the Japanese entrepreneur was an early investor in Alibaba and helped it along to its current value of roughly $600 billion, calling it the crown jewel of SoftBank’s portfolio.“It’s not like we …read more […]

Lufthansa shares jumped by 10% on Thursday after investor Heinz Hermann Thiele dropped his objections to a 9 billion euro ($10.12 billion) government bailout to rescue the carrier hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. “I will vote for the proposal,” Thiele, who recently increased his stake in Lufthansa to 15.5%, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily on Wednesday. Shareholders are due to vote on the bailout at Lufthansa’s virtual extraordinary general meeting on Thursday. …read more […]