Two options for NZ subsidiary of scandal-plagued Wirecard

Wirecard CEO Markus Braun speaking at a conference in Munich, during January 2018. Photo / Getty Images

Wirecard New Zealand - 100 per cent owned by its scandal-plagued German parent - faces two options.

The local operation has quietly begun a sales process, and documentation is expected to land next week, according to a report in The Australian.

There is said to be interest from Nasdaq-listed Fiserv and European payments group Worldline. Neither would comment.

However, if a buyer is not found, Wirecard NZ is likely to be put into liquidation, the report says.

Wirecard Australia is in the same position.

Options are said to include the sale of Wirecard Australia and Wirecard NZ together, or in pieces - but with the preference of selling them as one.

Wirecard's founder Markus Braun was arrested last month on suspicion of false accounting and market manipulation, two days after the payments group admitted €1.9 billion ($3.32b) of cash reported on its balance sheet likely never existed.

The group's shares have fallen 80 per cent since the revelation and later statements that previous financial statements might be inaccurate.

Wirecard NZ losses

Wirecard New Zealand, which runs an office of about 20 staff in Auckland, has yet to make public its financial statements for the December 2019 year but did file its 2018 accounts to the Companies Office in March this year.

Those statements showed the firm made a loss of $8 million in 2018, worse than the $1.2m loss reported the previous year.

The accounts stated that Wirecard NZ was dependent on continued support from its parent company – including a €10m letter of support for five years beginning April 2019.

A note under the heading "subsequent events" highlighted a court dispute with an Australian company that it was defending and a recapitalisation event in December 2019, whereby the German group increased the New Zealand company's share capital by €7.51m.

Wirecard NZ used this to settle "all outstanding loans" with Wirecard Technologies GmbH, the note said.

Wirecard CEO Markus Braun speaking at a conference in Munich, during January 2018. Photo / Getty Images

Since then, the New Zealand firm has borrowed an additional $1.85m from its parent company.

Wirecard's New Zealand accounts showed it paid wages and salaries of $8.6m in 2018.

The firm does 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.

Efforts to contact Wirecard NZ's director and vice-president of finance and administration, John Nicholson, led the Herald to the company's global public affairs team, who did not respond to questions about the New Zealand subsidiary.

Singapore raid

Wirecard's Asia headquarters last year were raided by Singapore police after the Financial Times reported whistleblower allegations that staff in the city state had forged documents to deceive regulators and auditors. Police investigations there are ongoing, the FT reported this week.

Last year, the Herald reported two of Wirecard's NZ directors – Andreas Kazamias, from Cyprus, and Arne Matthias, of Singapore – resigned on February 28, 2019.

Wirecard NZ's remaining three directors are Singapore-based Jeffry Ho and Fook Sun Ng, and Nicholson.

Wirecard was founded in the late 1990s and expanded through acquisitions, initially in Eastern Europe and then in Asia.

It established a foothold in Australia and New Zealand by buying Auckland-based payment company GFG Group in 2014.