Wirecard’s chief executive Markus Braun will receive a contract extension if an accounting probe finds no material misconduct at the company, according to its new chairman.
Thomas Eichelmann, who became chairman of the payments group this month, told Germany’s Manager magazine that the “essential” Mr Braun would be asked to stay beyond 2020.
Mr Braun, who is also the single largest shareholder of the fast-growing German payments service provider, has a contract that expires at the end of this year.
In Mr Eichelmann’s first public comments after becoming Wirecard chairman, he stressed that Mr Braun was critical for the “further success of the company”.
The accounting probe by KPMG, which is overseen by Mr Eichelmann, was commissioned by Wirecard after the Financial Times in October published documents that appeared to indicate a concerted effort to fraudulently inflate sales and profits.
The company has categorically denied impropriety and said the conclusions drawn by the FT about the files were incorrect.
Mr Eichelmann suggested that KPMG had not discovered any significant wrongdoing so far, noting that Wirecard would be forced to disclose material findings to shareholders immediately.
“You can draw your own conclusions from the fact that we have not yet published any regulatory statement [on interim findings of the KPMG audit],” adding that the investigation is supposed to be concluded by the end of March, he said.
The chairman stressed that the investigation’s results would be communicated by the supervisory board, rather than Wirecard’s management.
Since the start of the year, shares in Wirecard have risen 15 per cent.
Mr Eichelmann, who from 2007 to 2009 was chief financial officer of Deutsche Börse, called for an enlargement of both the executive as well as the supervisory board, with an additional two members on each.
“We need more capacity and competency on the supervisory board to be able to critically and constructively escort the executive board,” he said, adding that the supervisory board could do with additional international experience as well as financial expertise.
The company was also working on improved compliance structures and was hiring “several dozen additional experts [in that area]”, said the chairman, adding that Wirecard had also asked KPMG for advice on how to improve.
“In areas where we are not yet [state of the art with regard to compliance and governance], we will do everything necessary to get us there.”
