www.bnnbloomberg.ca/...-margin-loan-to-merger-talks-1.1460287
The two companies were already close. Deutsche Bank was a key lender to Wirecard and its chief executive officer, Markus Braun, who also sat on one of its regional advisory boards. Andreas Loetscher, an Ernst & Young partner who had overseen several audits of Wirecard’s results, had recently joined Deutsche Bank as chief accounting officer. DWS, the bank’s asset-management unit, was a shareholder.
Yet behind the scenes, doubts were growing whether the fintech’s success was for real. Deutsche Bank’s investment bankers argued its accounts were opaque and the stock overvalued, and risk managers sought ways to cut their exposure without rattling markets. Over the course of the following year, Deutsche Bank unwound or hedged most of some $300 million it had agreed to lend to Braun and his firm -- while its asset management arm kept piling in, an analyst upgraded the stock and its bankers helped the firm raise debt.
...A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the lender’s ties to Wirecard
....FT ...even regulators -- brushed it off as the work of short sellers seeking a quick profit, but the FT stood by its reporting throughout.
At Deutsche Bank, some executives grew alarmed, including Garth Ritchie, the head of investment banking at the time. Ritchie’s skepticism had arisen in part from conversations with hedge-fund clients that had conducted their own research into the firm’s workings, and who had been betting against the stock. His unit oversaw a 150 million-euro loan to Braun that was secured by Wirecard shares, so if the shares fell, the bank could lose a lot of money.
Risk managers led by Stuart Lewis, Deutsche Bank’s chief risk officer, were also worried. The lender had agreed to provide around 120 million euros to Wirecard as part of that firm’s revolving credit facility, but the payments company was expanding very rapidly and Deutsche Bank didn’t fully understand all the factors at play. They reduced their exposure and increased their hedge in the wake of the FT story...."