George Soros Made $100M Brexit Bet Against Deutsche Bank — and Won

George Soros Image by Getty Images
Billionaire investor George Soros took out a bet of more than 100 million euros ($111 million) that Deutsche Bank shares would fall at the time of Britain’s vote to quit the European Union, according to a regulatory filing.
Soros, who is renowned for successfully betting against the pound in 1992, had a “short” position of 0.51 percent or about 7 million Deutsche Bank shares on June 24, the filing shows. There was no record of such a position in the days before.
Deutsche Bank shares have fallen about 17 percent since June 23, the day of the referendum, which could make Soros millions of dollars. However, on Tuesday he still held a short position of 0.46 percent, a separate filing showed.
In short selling trades, investors borrow securities and sell them on, hoping to buy them back at a lower price and book the difference as a profit.
Soros was not immediately available for comment.
Banks across Europe have been battered by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23.
Deutsche Bank, which is undergoing a deep restructuring, has been hamstrung by having to pay out billions of dollars of fines to end a slew of legal disputes. Its shares are down more than 50 percent over the last year.
Soros said on Monday he had not speculated against the British pound in the run-up to the referendum. “In fact, he was long the British Pound leading up to the vote,” a spokesman for Soros said.
Separately, hedge fund Marshall Wace also held a short position in Deutsche Bank of about 0.5 percent on June 24, a filing showed.
German daily Die Welt reported the short positions earlier.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.