Rocket Internet

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has exempted Rocket Internet, Global Founders, Rocata and Zerena, subject to conditions, from the obligation to publish a control-acquisition notice and to make a mandatory offer if they were to obtain control by canceling their own Westwing Group SE shares. The exemption is subject to revocation if they exercise 30% or more of voting rights, if de facto majority relations are exceeded, or if they acquire more than 6,650 additional voting rights; there are also reporting and disclosure obligations regarding annual general meeting registrations. The decision includes detailed ancillary provisions to ensure that the applicants do not gain a permanent additional influence. » More on finanzen.net

A minority shareholder accuses Rocket Internet of intentionally undervaluing holdings to buy back shares cheaply. Auditor Scherzer & Co criticizes questionable impairments in the 2024 financial statements that led to a net loss of more than €550 million. Scherzer cites examples such as Kalshi (written down from €4.4m to €400,000) and only a marginally higher valuation for the SpaceX stake, and calls on EY to scrutinize the 2025 financial statements closely and on the supervisory board to take decisive action. Scherzer estimates that around €1.3 billion could be used for a buyback program funded by undervalued shares. » More on golem.de

BaFin has exempted Rocket Internet by decision of 2 July 2025 from the obligation to publish an acquisition-of-control notice and to submit an offer document under §35 WpÜG if the cancellation of Westwing’s own shares would cause the control threshold to be exceeded. The exemption is subject to conditions: Rocket Internet must not exercise voting rights of 30% or more, must inform BaFin immediately about any acquisition of control and must submit voting-rights notifications after each annual general meeting; the exemption can be revoked. The decision is based on current shareholdings (Rocket holds around 29.95%, Westwing holds around 9.98% treasury shares) and the possibility that cancellations could raise Rocket’s stake to up to about 33.27%. » More on finanzen.net