Wirecard’s Braun Has to Unwind Shares Pledged as Collateral
- Braun pledged 4.2 million shares to secure the loan in 2017
- Wirecard’s shares lost almost three-fourths of value last week
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Wirecard AG’s former boss Markus Braun is unwinding a large portion of the shares he owns in the embattled payments processor, a stake he financed by borrowing against the stock’s value, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Former Chief Executive Officer Braun, who held 7% of Wirecard’s shares to rank as the company’s biggest shareholder, had funded his purchase through a 150 million-euro margin loan that was secured by the value of the underlying stock. Wirecard’s shares plunged 72% last week after billions in cash went missing, triggering a liquidation of the shares Braun had pledged as collateral, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information hasn’t been publicly disclosed.