Wirecard administrator says received inbound interest for assets

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Wirecard’s administrator said he has received strong inbound interest for the payment firm’s assets and will shortly mandate banks for the sale of individual parts of the company.

“A large number of investors from all over the world have contacted us, interested in acquiring either the core business or business units that are independent of it”, Michael Jaffe said in a statement after a creditor committee meeting late on Tuesday.

Wirecard filed for insolvency last week owing creditors almost $4 billion after disclosing a 1.9 billion euro ($2.1 billion) hole in its accounts that its auditor EY said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud.

To recoup some of the money, Wirecard’s U.S. subsidiary – formerly Citi Prepaid Card Services which Wirecard acquired in 2016 – has already been put on the block.

“The most urgent goal in the provisional insolvency proceedings is to stabilize the business operations of the company’s subsidiaries,” Jaffe said, adding insolvencies of individual units could not be ruled out.

“Wirecard Bank is still not insolvent. Payouts to merchants and customers of Wirecard Bank are being executed without restrictions.”

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Christopher Cushing)