Wirecard ramps up outlook on back of booming e-commerce market
German online-payments company Wirecard raised its 2019 forecast for the second time this year on Wednesday on the back of big client wins including the Aldi supermarket chain and Royal Air Maroc.
Wirecard expects EBITDA earnings to come in somewhere between €765 million and €815 million (£704-£750 million). The transaction volume processed through Wirecard platform jumped by 38% from January to June to €77 billion.
"In the first half of the year, our growth has accelerated, so we are optimistic about the second half of the year," said Wirecard CEO Markus Braun.
The Munich-based company also upped its “Vision 2020” forecast, predicting transaction volume rising from €215 billion, to €230 billion and revenue topping €3.2 billion.
The fintech’s core business is providing online payment systems for retailers, airlines, telecoms companies, and other large platforms.
SoftBank announced earlier this year that it will invest $1 billion in the fintech as bonds. Having SoftBank in its corner also allows Wirecard access to the investment fund’s huge stable of startups — it announced recently that it will work with SoftBank-backed used-car platform Auto1.
“We believe Wirecard will continue to fill its new (contract) signings pipeline aggressively with larger deals, following the acceptance of the SoftBank deal by the supervisory board,” Deutsche Bank analyst Johannes Schaller said ahead of the results. “However, we believe a further increase in transparency is as crucial for the company in addition to delivering on growth and margin expansion.”
Wirecard —famous for ousting German banking giant Commerzbank off the DAX last year— came under the spotlight earlier this year after the Financial Times reported on allegations of false accounting and fraud at its Asian offices. The company is now suing the FT.
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