Failsafe Test Case to Be Averted

Transactions of Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft are the subject of a tax audit, reports the company in a publication of inside information in accordance with Article 17 of Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

The subject of the tax audit is an examination of the business of Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft in the financial years 2007 to 2011 in connection with investigations under criminal tax law. In the investigation, Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft is the addressee of a request for information and disclosure. This involves the persons responsible at Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft on suspicion of unlawful offsetting or reimbursement of unpaid capital gains taxes and solidarity surcharges in share transactions on the dividend date.

Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft plays a crucial role in trading so-called “wikifolios“. Each wikifolio can, if it meets certain criteria, serve as a fictitious reference portfolio to which a wikifolio index refers.

Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft issues endless index certificates on the wikifolio index. These endless index certificates are traded on the Stuttgart Stock Exchange and can be bought and sold at almost all banks and online brokers via the Stuttgart Stock Exchange or directly from Lang & Schwarz.

Wikifolio certificates are secured. “That means,” writes wikifolio Financial Technologies AG, “defaults from an issuer risk generally associated with investments in certificates are largely hedged.” The market capitalization of Lang & Schwarz Aktiengesellschaft is currently well below half a billion euros, which affects the susceptibility to short-seller attacks. These in turn could influence the company’s credit rating.

Therefore, investors in wikifolio certificates must take into account the unlikely but possible event that a test case of the fail-safe protection of the certificates could occur.