Bottoming-out billionaires shows pledging can be a dangerous business
London/Zurich — WeWork impresario Adam Neumann, Chinese latte mogul Lu Zhengyao and, now, Markus Braun, the fallen star of German fintech, all have exposed the perils of one of the biggest money manoeuvres in the C-suite: borrowing money against stock in your own company.
Braun was forced to sell much of his stake in Wirecard to meet margin calls on a €150m loan he’d secured against about half of his ownership. When the company’s share price collapsed as an accounting scandal came to light in June, he ended up liquidating two-thirds of his holdings over two days to meet margin calls, pushing the stock even lower...
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