(Bloomberg) -- The meltdown at Wirecard AG is raising questions about the company’s complicated relationship with the troubled SoftBank Group Corp.The Japanese conglomerate signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the payments firm last year and agreed to buy $1 billion of Wirecard convertible bonds, although that exposure was later cut through a complex transaction. This month, a partner at SoftBank’s investment arm was on track to become a supervisory board member at Wirecard.Then on Thursday, Wirecard revealed that auditors had been unable to find about 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in cash that was supposed to be held in Asian banks. The company suffered one of the worst stock slumps in the history of Germany’s benchmark index, then fell again sharply on Friday.The damage for SoftBank may be more to its reputation than its finances. The Japanese company last April unveiled a complicated transaction for about $1 billion in convertible bonds...
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has revealed that the government has been working with Canadian tech giants Shopify (SHOP) and BlackBerry (BB) on a contact-tracing Covid-19 app to be launched early July.“It will be up to individual Canadians to decide whether to download the app or not, but the app will be most effective when as many people as possible have it,” Trudeau stated during Thursday’s daily briefing, as Covid-19 cases in Canada officially reached 100,000.He added that it would be ‘extraordinary useful’ if half of Canadians sign up. “There are over 30 million smartphones that could take this app in Canada, so we can talk about a significant portion of the Canadian population that could be protected by this app” the Prime Minister said.The app, named COVID Alert, will first be launched in Ontario, then rolled out to the rest of the country. Users voluntarily upload Covid-19 test results to the...
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) on Thursday in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission said it had abandoned a plan to raise $500 million in a stock offering.SEC Review Led To Sale Abandonment The bankrupt car rental company noted it "determined that it was in the best interests of the Company to terminate" the sale.The move follows the SEC's Division of Corporate Finance notice about reviewing the sale of the shares.Hertz was looking to raise fresh funding for its business restructuring plan. The company warned investors that the shares were likely to become worthless at the end of the restructuring.Hertz Looks For Bankruptcy Loan As the stock sale is abandoned, the company is instead looking for bankruptcy loans, the Wall Street Journal reported later in the day.Hertz has approached a group of top lenders, including hedge funds, for a loan that could extend up to $1...
(Bloomberg) -- Global stocks rose with U.S. equity futures on Friday as investors cheered the latest breakthrough in trade negotiations between America and China and the start of stimulus talks in Europe. Treasuries held recent gains.The Stoxx 600 Index climbed as attention turned to negotiations over the European Union’s proposed 750 billion-euro ($840 billion) program to help economies rebound from lockdowns. Wirecard AG shares bucked the trend, continuing their free-fall as the German payments company faced a potential cash crunch.Contracts on the three main U.S. stock gauges advanced on reports that China plans to accelerate purchases of American farm goods to comply with the phase one trade deal following talks in Hawaii.After a brief swoon, equity markets are back to rallying as investors bet that governments will be able to put their economies back on track with enough stimulus at their disposal. U.S. and European benchmarks have clawed back nearly all...
