New accusations of US hedge funds
After last week with a controversial report, the share of the Cologne media group Ströer had crashed, lays Carson Block, founder and head of the US hedge fund Muddy Waters, after.
"Ströer Management does not deserve the confidence of investors," Block told the Wirtschaftswoche to the 16-page reply from Ströer CEO Udo Müller last Friday. In this Müller had the allegations block "wrong in the core" rejected as via teleconference and announced legal action. Then exacerbated hedge fund boss Block now his accusations: "In my opinion, it lacked the answers to clarity, because they were often applied on it, further to lead investors astray."
So be Ströer allegation "totally incorrect" Block have foreign exchange and the revenue share of new investment companies of Stöer not included in his report. Muddy Waters had even granted an exchange rate gain of EUR 15 million in its calculations of organic growth Ströer. Nevertheless, sales growth was lower than claimed by Ströer. In addition, the associated companies had contributed 1.5 million euros to growth, just 0.2 percent of total revenue.
According to information WirtschaftsWoche hedge fund chief block let the statements of Ströer CEO Müller in the conference call last Friday to analyze from an ex-employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency. Here this was met with "practices", it is said, "that we associate with deception." With similar methods Muddy Waters had already attacked the French retail giant Casino and the commodity group Noble Group of Hong Kong.