In an upcoming general meeting on August 26th, the future of Varengold Bank’s Forex business is expected to be decided. Leading up to the meeting, the German broker announced last month that CEO Yasin Sebastian Qureshi, and Executive Board Members, Mohammad Hans Dastmaltchi and Steffen Fix were leaving the firm. In addition, Board Members Hans J.M. Manteuffel, Peter Andree and Willi Müller, will be also stepping down from the board effective after the general meeting. With the departures, Varengold will be placing an entirely new Supervisory Board at the general meeting.
The changes at the top occur after an external fund has acquired a majority stake in the broker. According to sources close to the firm, as part of their control on the broker, the new owners are interested in de-emphasizing Varengold’s forex business, and potentially relinquishing it all together. Having founded Varengold in 1995, Qureshi and Fix are believed to have been unhappy with the new plans which led to their departure. In their replacement, the controlling owning fund has placed its own board members, with the goal of planting an entirely new Supervisory Board of its own at the upcoming general meeting to implement their new business model for Varengold Bank.
A volatile business which was weak in 2013, Varengold swung to a profit last, reporting earnings per share (EPS) of €0.12 in 2014 versus €-2.28 in 2013. Therefore, in targeting Varengold, the value is believed to be in the firm’s German bank license which was recently upgraded to a full bank license (like Switzerland, German brokers are required to register as banks to provide financial services to customers).
Contacted by Finance Magnates, as of publishing time Varengold has refrained from providing comment about the changes at the bank, its new controlling owners, and management team. We will keep digging into the story and will update when further details surface.
