The Auckland-based Wirecard NZ had around 20 Auckland-based staff.
In a stock exchange announcement Change stressed that the Australian and New Zealand operations are separate from the global group and parent company Wirecard AG that was at the centre of the accounting malpractice that led to its voluntary administration in July 2020.
"The Wirecard business still remains an ongoing concern. Following a due diligence exercise and competitive sales process, Change Financial was selected as the preferred bidder and has signed a binding sale and purchase agreement with the administrators," Change Financial said.
The acquisition will bring in 120 new customers in over 35 countries, adding significant scale and growth, said Change Financial.
The company has announced a capital raising to pay for the acquisition, including a placement to professional investors and rights issue to existing shareholders.
Wirecard NZ was set up differently from the rest of the group. It is a software licensing business and development business, not transactional. It was possible it could be sold separately.
"It's a good business," Grenfell told the Herald last month. Unlike its German parent, it was not under investigation.
Wirecard NZ accounts for the 2018 financial year, showed a loss of $8 million in 2018, worse than the $1.2m loss reported the previous year.
The company paid wages and salaries of $8.6m in 2018, but did not appear to have received support under the Government's Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme, based on a search of the Ministry of Social Development's web page.
Once valued at $28 billion, Germany's Wirecard AG filed for insolvency in June in a Munich court following an auditor's disclosure that US$2.1 billion of supposed deposits were missing from two banks in the Philippines. The company admitted it had debts of more than US$4 billion.
Other parts of the Wirecard empire are also on the block.
