EQS-News: SGT Capital launches covert defamation campaign against The Payments Group Holding

+++ Press release +++

SGT Capital launches covert defamation campaign against
The Payments Group Holding

• Warning about untrue allegations against PGH and against unauthorised investigation attempts by SGT Capital and its lawyers Willkie Farr Gallagher LLP

Frankfurt/Main, 16 December 2025 – The Payments Group Holding (PGH), a holding company based in Frankfurt am Main that was founded in 2012 and renamed in August 2024, has been involved in various disputes with SGT Capital Group since 2024, in particular regarding receivables of PGH against the SGT Group in the amount of 6.0 million EUR. SGT Group, its partners and its predecessor company XiO already were or have previously been involved in a large number of legal disputes around the globe, including, so far as is known, with the seller in their failed Elatec deal in 2023, an entity of the Summit Partners Group, with investors of the predecessor company XiO, with the Wall Street Journal respectively its holding company Dow Jones, with the majority of their former partners, with former associates and senior employees, and until 2023 even with the current SGTLLC partners Marcel Normann and Jens Dino Steinborn, as well as to this day with their own foreign legal counsel.

In recent weeks, SGT Group has launched a covert defamation campaign of unprecedented escalation against PGH and its CEO. In more than twenty-five letters and emails received since 30 October 2025, the SGT partners Joseph Pacini, Carsten Geyer, Marcel Normann and Marianne Rajic have disparaged and in part slandered PGH and its CEO behind its backs with false, in some cases entirely absurd allegations addressed to BaFin, Deutsche Börse, the Supervisory Board and an important business partner of PGH, or even insulted them using obscene language, up until the day of this release. One of the letters originated from the lawyers of SGT Group, attorneys Johannes Schmidt and Matthias Schrader of the law firm Willkie Farr Gallagher LLP, who thus even claim the credibility of their international law firm to advance evidently false statements, disparagements and alleged slander. In some of the letters, recipients are also urged to take certain actions disclose information without authorisation, i.e. attempts are made to extract information from them.

PGH requests that all correspondence received from SGT Group concerning PGH be treated with extreme scepticism and that no information be disclosed to the sender, even if it is the law firm Willkie Farr Gallagher LLP. PGH welcomes any information regarding such letters and is available at any time to assist in clarifying the matter.

There have already been incidents in the past in which SGT partners or lawyers of the law firm Willkie Farr Gallagher LLP induced or attempted to induce third parties to take actions to the detriment of PGH by pretending false facts or even by presenting invalid powers of attorney. As was only discovered on 1 November 2024, for example, attorney Johannes Schmidt claimed on 17 November 2023 to have authority to represent the general partner of PGH and, in this manner, obtained access on 18 November 2023 to Christoph Gerlinger’s PGH email accounts for SGT partners without authorisation. Johannes Schmidt subsequently refused to provide the general partner of PGH, his alleged client, with a qualified explanation of these events, citing the alleged non-existence of a mandate, and denied the possession of PGH email account data. In the context of timing of the uncovering of these circumstances, the partner and head of Germany of Willkie Farr Gallagher LLP, attorney Georg Linde, labelled email correspondence with Christoph Gerlinger on 8 November 2024 with the subject line “Darmspiegelung” (colonoscopy) and – possibly as a threatening gesture –initially claimed to have accused him at a well-known Frankfurt restaurant owner of the completely fabricated existence of debts in the millions owed to Carsten Geyer, whilst he subsequently dismissed this as mere sarcasm.

 

About The Payments Group Holding 

The Payments Group Holding (PGH) is a holding company and venture capital provider based in Frankfurt am Main founded in 2012 and renamed in August 2024.

In August 2024, PGH signed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of four PayTech companies, the terms of which are currently being renegotiated with the aim of closing the deal in Q1 2026, subject to certain conditions precedent being met. After closing of the transaction, PGH will form a group of four operating PayTech companies:

Funanga AG, Campamocha Ltd with its 100%-owned subsidiaries TBWS Ltd and Calida Financial Ltd as well as Surfer Rosa Ltd form a fast-growing, vertically integrated e-Money PayTech group of companies - The Payments Group (TPG). TPG provides proprietary closed and open (branded and white-labelled) prepaid payment services to hundreds of online merchants worldwide. The synergy between these companies positions TPG as the future market leader in embedded financial products and prepaid solutions. Calida Financial Ltd. is the regulated company within TPG, having received an e-money license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) in August 2024. This license entitles Calida Financial Ltd. to offer innovative e-money services and products across Europe.

TPG employs over 50 people and operates globally. TPG's customers make use of more than 550,000 POS cash payment points and the global online prepaid card network to process cash and cashless online payments.

Furthermore, PGH operates an AI-focused company builder called 'Softmax AI' together with AI experts via its future 25% stake in German AI Projects GmbH. In addition, The Payments Group Holding holds from its history as a leading German venture capital provider under the German Startups Group brand a heritage VC-portfolio of minority stakes in partly promising German startups via its wholly owned subsidiary German Startups Group VC GmbH.
 

More information: www.tpgholding.com.

Investor Relations Contact
Rosenberg Strategic Communications
Alexander Schmidt
a.schmidt@rosenbergsc.com