Wirecard short-seller goes after Byju’s and Sofina Group

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Editor's note: “It is not an edtech company now, is it?” That’s Viceroy Research’s Fraser Perring speaking to me about Byju’s on the phone from London.  It has been a few days since Perring announced his next short target: Belgian venture investment firm Sofina Group. With a net worth of 11.4 billion euro, or about $12.3 billion, and a 120-year history, Sofina Group has investments in Europe, Asia and the US. As of December 2021, Bengaluru-based edtech giant Byju’s is among Sofina’s top 10 investments. Perring believes Byju’s is an unsound business, and so he has put a short position on Sofina, saying the company is overvalued.   Short selling is a trading strategy that speculates a stock’s price will decline. It involves a seller taking a short position by borrowing shares from a broker and selling them, planning to buy them back at a lower price later. If short selling can be considered an art, Perring would be a prolific artist. He is best known for calling out the Wirecard fraud much before the world caught on to it. It was in …