LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge funds were right to target Wirecard after “forensic analysis” showed there was something amiss since 2014 at the now collapsed German payments company, industry body AIMA said on Tuesday.
“What is very clear is that short selling hedge funds did not cause the demise of Wirecard. Far from it,” said Jack Inglis, chief executive of the hedge funds industry association.
German regulator BaFin imposed a two-month short-selling ban on Wirecard shares in February 2019. The company collapsed last week after a $2.1 billion hole in its books was uncovered.
“There is a very powerful message here in the value of short selling,” Inglis said.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, Editing by Iain Withers)
