Shopping centre owner Intu appoints administrators in back-up rescue plan June 23, 2020 Intu has told investors today it has lined up administrators in case ongoing talks regarding the shopping centre owner’s future fail. It has appointed Big Four accountancy firm KPMG as administrator as part of a “contingency plan” as it continues to engage lenders about new funding. The owner of the Trafford and Lakeside shopping centres [...]
How do you solve a problem like Wirecard? June 19, 2020 It’s been a wild ride for Wirecard. When the German payments firm premiered on the prestigious blue-chip Dax index just two years ago, shares were priced at €200 apiece. Today, prices hit as low as €20 per share, forcing out chief executive Markus Braun and leaving the future of the digital payments firm in question. [...]
Wirecard chief quits as shares plummet over missing €1.9bn June 19, 2020 Wirecard chief executive Markus Braun has resigned with immediate effect after the German payments firm’s disclosure of a €1.9bn (£1.7bn) accounting black hole sent shares into a tailspin. Shares have plunged more than 80 per cent since Wednesday’s close after auditor EY yesterday refused to sign off Wirecard’s financial accounts after discovering that €1.9bn of [...]
Wirecard shares continue to nosedive as boss claims it is victim of ‘considerable fraud’ June 19, 2020 Shares in Wirecard continued to plummet today as its chief executive said it may be the victim of “considerable fraud” after auditors yesterday found a cash hole of almost €2bn in the company’s financial accounts. In-house auditor EY yesterday refused to sign off the German payments firm’s annual accounts, saying it could not confirm the [...]
Wirecard shares plummet as firm admits €1.9bn of cash is missing June 18, 2020 Wirecard shares plummeted more than 66 per cent this morning after the payments group announced its auditor could not confirm the existence of €1.9bn (£1.71bn) in cash. The German firm today said there were indications that a trustee of Wirecard bank accounts had tried to “deceive the auditor and create a wrong perception of the [...]
Wirecard short sellers make ‘a fortune’ as shares nosedive on missing €1.9bn June 18, 2020 Wirecard short sellers hit the jackpot today as shares in the German fintech plummeted following reports of a €1.9bn (£1.7bn) accounting black hole. Short sellers have piled bets against the payments firm, which offers customers electronic payment transaction services and risk management, amid mounting questions over its accounting accuracy. Wirecard’s announcement this morning that auditor [...]
Crypto AM turns two years old today – One week, four anniversaries! June 18, 2020 Two years ago on the 18th June the first edition of Crypto AM was published in London’s City AM newspaper as a double page spread. With Crypto AM as a weekly feature, City AM became the only mainstream publisher to do this, thus providing an educational voice for the industry to share knowledge with the [...]
Former FRC chairman Simon Dingemans joins Carlyle June 15, 2020 The former chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) who stepped down last month has taken a new role at private equity firm Carlyle. Simon Dingemans, who left the accounting watchdog in May, will join Carlyle as a managing director in charge of UK buyouts, first reported by the Financial Times. He will also reportedly [...]
UK economy: Five charts that show we face a long road to recovery June 13, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has plunged the UK economy into an unprecedented crisis, with GDP shrinking by a record 20.4 per cent April as lockdown measures hammered businesses. The Bank of England has warned that Britain could be heading for its deepest recession in three centuries this year. It is widely believed that April will mark [...]
Coronavirus: UK economy set for ‘most severe downturn in modern times’ June 10, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has dragged the UK into the “most severe economic downturn in modern times” with the economy set to contract over seven per cent this year, new forecasts suggest. The UK economy is expected to shrink 7.2 per cent in 2020 and is unlikely to fully recover from the impact of Covid-19 until [...]