- Wirecard's stock exploded on Monday even after the company filed for insolvency last week.
- The move looks likely to be a dead cat bounce, the market phenomenon when a troubled stock briefly climbs after a major fall.
Wirecard said on the weekend that it would continue business until and the decision of whether to open insolvency proceedings is still being reviewed.- The company added an insolvency administrator would be appointed in due course.
- Wirecard's former chief executive Markus Braun resigned last week on suspicion of market manipulation and false accounting practises.
- The company had said a more than $2 billion gap in the company's balance sheet "likely never existed."
- UK's regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority ordered Wirecard's UK subsidiary to cease operations last Friday.
Wirecard's stock exploded as much as 184% on Monday, rebounding from catastrophic lows last week after the German payments processor filed for insolvency, following days of dramatic events including the arrest of its former CEO Markus Braun.
Wirecard's share price is up 160% at 3.66 euros ($4.13) as of 8.00 a.m. ET. Earlier, shares traded up as much as 184% up to an intra-day high of 4 euros ($4.5).
The company's stock, however, is still down about 97% in 2020, having traded as high as 140 euros per share as recently as April, and at over 100 euros in mid-June.
Monday's move looks likely to be a dead cat bounce, the market phenomenon when a troubled stock briefly climbs after a major fall.
However, the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Wirecard is continuing its business activities despite filing for insolvency.
Wirecard said the decision of whether to open insolvency proceedings is currently being reviewed.
The German payments processor added that a provisional insolvency administrator is expected to be appointed in the near future.
In Germany, an insolvency administrator has the option to continue the business as long as there the potential for an investor to snap up the insolvent business.
Wirecard filed for insolvency on Thursday after an announcing scandal in which over $2 billion of cash went missing from the company's balance sheet and the company said the missing cash likely never existed.
This came days after the arrest of its former chief executive Markus Braun who was arrested on suspicion of market manipulation and false accounting practises.
The firm had said its missing cash was being held in two banks in the Philippines, but later Philippines denied the claim.
On Friday, UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority ordered the Wirecard's UK subsidiary, Wirecard Solutions Limited, to cease all regulated activities following the insolvency filing by its parent company.