BERLIN:
Japan's
SoftBank Group Corp will buy a 5.6 percent stake in German payments company
Wirecard by acquiring convertible bonds worth around 900 million euros ($1.01 billion), Wirecard said in a statement on Wednesday.
Under the investment, Wirecard said it shall issue convertible bonds with a term of five years exclusively to an affiliate of SoftBank, convertible to 6,923,076 million ordinary shares at 130 euros per Wirecard share.
The issuance of the convertible bonds, which currently corresponds to around 5.6 percent of Wirecard's stock, is subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting on June 18, Wirecard said.
The investment comes as Wirecard defends itself against Financial Times newspaper reports earlier this year saying staff at its Asian operations had inflated reported revenue.
Last month, Wirecard said an outside law firm investigating the matter found local staff at its Singapore office may have committed crimes but these were not material to the German payment company's financial position.
The two companies said they had also signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership in the area of digital solutions.
SoftBank will help Wirecard expand into Japan and
South Korea, and provide collaboration opportunities in
digital payments, data-analytics/AI and innovative digital financial services within the Japanese firm's portfolio companies.