Air Berlin has been bankrupt for years. Nevertheless, the share price suddenly soars by more than 500 percent, only to then rush down again. There is also wild price turbulence at Arcandor and Wirecard. What’s going on there?
The Internet flash mob has discovered the shares of German bankrupt companies – there is now wild speculation with Air Berlin, Arcandor and Wirecard. The method: Hobby gamers meet in forums on the Internet platform Reddit, for example, to buy shares in order to drive the price upwards together. The American video game retailer Gamestopp succeeded in doing this in a particularly impressive way: after a wild roller coaster ride, the shares have still gained around 2000 percent in value since the beginning of the year.
In Germany, the phenomenon of “meme shares” arrived at the latest with the price explosion at Windeln.de. In the past five days, the value had almost quadrupled, but today it went down by more than 30 percent at times.
Now it’s the turn of companies that have long been bankrupt. You can gamble with them particularly well, as they only cost cents. So Air Berlin shares shot up more than 500 percent yesterday, despite the fact that the company has been insolvent since 2018. Then things went steeply downhill again from the high of around 4 cents for the shares. Today the stock exchange casino goes on happily. The fun is only over when the initiators of the rally have said goodbye and the prices rush down because the mass of gamblers are pushing to the exit.
The dead live longer
At Arcandor, the price movements are less wild, but still stately. While the shares cost around 2.8 cents on Monday, the price is now seven percent up at 3.4 cents. Share price gain since the beginning of the year: around 20 percent. The former Karstadt mother has been insolvent since 2009.
And Wirecard? The shares of the scandal company were bobbing around the price of 33 cents for a long time when they suddenly raced up around 80 percent to 60 cents yesterday. They have now dropped to around 45 cents.
The question remains why the companies are still on the stock exchange at all. The reason: Companies do not automatically disappear from the stock market when they are broke. For this, a so-called delisting must be applied for. Insolvency administrators often take their time with it. And even if the application has been submitted to the exchange operator, it can take a long time to complete the step. And for hobby traders there is the opportunity to gamble with zombies on the stock exchange.
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