The German public-listed FinTech Wirecard has postponed the presentation of its 2019 annual results for the third time this year. Allegedly, the company’s auditor EY needs more time to finish its work, the company said in a statement last night.
The audit firm Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft has informed Wirecard AG that all foreign auditors have meanwhile been able to finalize their audit procedures for Group purposes. Within the scope of the completed parts of the audit procedures, Wirecard has not yet been informed of any material findings […] The publication of the consolidated financial statements and the annual press conference will take place on June 18, 2020. The company expects an unqualified audit opinion.
Wirecard statement published 25 May 2020
Wirecard is facing accusations of accounting manipulation raised by whistleblowers. the company entered into a tough fight with the Financial Times that investigated the allegations. Evidently, it’s never a good idea to fight against a leading financial newspaper.
The company’s shares have more lost more than a third since late April 2020 when it published the results of a KPMG special audit report. In it, KPMG said that it could not verify that the “lion’s share” of Wirecard’s operating profits between 2016 and 2018 were genuine which were generated via Third-Party Acquirer (TPA).
Markus Braun, the Austrian CEO of Wirecard, has seen his company washed clean of the accusations in the KPMG audit report. The major shareholders and the public, however, have a different view.
According to the company, it expects an unqualified opinion to be issued by EY. This is a strong statement given the fact that EY has not yet completed the audit. So far, the Wirecard performance in this PR disaster has been beyond imagination.
