The Platform Group’s Vertrauenskrise: Strong Earnings Can’t Outweigh a 76% Wipeout

E-commerce firm Platform Group faces existential crisis as loan cancellations, fraud allegations, and AEP acquisition uncertainty drive stock down 76% from peak.

The Platform Group is suffering from a crisis of confidence that no quarterly beat can fix. Shares of the e-commerce company closed at €1.35 on Tuesday, shedding roughly 40% in a single week and sinking almost 76% below the February peak. A modest rebound of 8.66% to €1.50 on Wednesday does little to mask the scale of the sell-off — the stock has now lost more than half its value in just 30 days.

The root of the panic lies in a cascade of legal and financial shocks that erupted on June 16. Reports emerged that Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and Sparkasse Essen had abruptly cancelled loans, leaving outstanding claims of around €6.75 million and €5.1 million respectively. Far more alarming, the Chemnitz public prosecutor’s office is examining a criminal complaint for possible forgery and fraud, after suspicions arose that joint liability declarations from managing directors of certain subsidiaries may have been signed without their knowledge. Germany’s financial watchdog, BaFin, has also received related tips.

Management has pushed back hard, labelling the allegations a targeted campaign. Law firm LHR has been instructed to seek an injunction against the dissemination of the claims, and the board has announced a lawsuit including damages against a report in manager magazin published on June 12. Operationally, the company insists it is on solid ground: first-quarter revenue surged 51% to €243 million and adjusted EBITDA climbed 37% to €21.8 million. The full-year forecast of €1 billion in net revenue remains unchanged.

Yet the market is fixated on a looming deadline. The company has set the end of June as the target to finalise the financing for the acquisition of pharmaceutical wholesaler AEP. If the deal goes through, the gross merchandise volume is expected to rise to €3.0 billion in the medium term; if it collapses, the lower baseline of €1.7 billion applies. An update was promised for June, but no news has emerged, fuelling extreme uncertainty. That is reflected in the numbers: annualised volatility stands at nearly 139% (137% in one estimate), and the relative strength index has plunged to 21.6, deep in oversold territory.

With an investor conference in Paris scheduled for June 25 and the annual general meeting in Düsseldorf on July 1 — where the board will have to face shareholders directly — the next ten days will be decisive. Until management provides clarity on the AEP transaction, the selling pressure is likely to persist, leaving the stock pinned between robust fundamentals and a crisis of trust that shows no sign of abating.