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Deutsche Börse CEO to step down

October 26, 2017

The head of Deutsche Börse, which operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, will have to resign as CEO by the end of the year. Executives said they hoped to put an end to allegations of insider trading.

https://p.dw.com/p/2mYev
Carsten Kengeter, Deutsche Börse
Image: picture-alliance/D. Spiekermann-Klaas

Executives attending an extraordinary meeting of Deutsche Börse's supervisory board on Thursday announced Chief Executive Officer Carsten Kengeter (pictured above) would step down at the end of the year.

The company had long been trying to put an end to allegations of insider trading over share purchases by the CEO.

Kengeter, who had denied any wrongdoing and said he was cooperating with investigators, made share purchases shortly before formal merger talks with the London Stock Exchange were announced and triggered a sharp rise in Deutsche Börse's stock value.

Game over

The company announced in September it had agreed to pay $12.5 million (10.6 million euros) in fines to put paid to the matter.

But the Frankfurt Stock Exchange operator had left a question mark over a possible leadership reshuffle, saying it would wait until investigations by Germany's financial watchdog and the government of Hesse were completed before deciding whether to extend Kengeter's contract.

The insider trading allegations had drawn massive criticism from shareholders. "The damage to Deutsche Börse's reputation is already immense, and shareholders should not be asked to shoulder more costs now," fund manager Ingo Speich of Union Investment had said in a statement.

Frankfurt prosecutors resumed investigations into Kengeter's share purchases earlier this week after a planned deal with the judiciary failed to materialize.

hg/jd (dpa, Reuters)