Norway’s sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management, which was built from the income from Norway’s oil and gas wells, plans to join the class-action lawsuits filed against Volkswagen AG over the German maker’s emissions scandal.
The Financial Times first reported the sovereign fund’s plan brings additional weight to legal attack on Volkswagen’s conduct as it plots a comeback in North America where sales have been decimated by the scandal.
“Norges Bank Investment Management intends to join a legal action against Volkswagen arising out of that the company provided incorrect emissions data,” said Marthe Skaar, the fund’s spokeswoman, in a statement released over the weekend.
“We have been advised by our lawyers that the company’s conduct gives rise to legal claims under German law. As an investor, it is our responsibility to safeguard the fund’s holding in Volkswagen,” Skaar added.
The legal action would take place in Germany, a separate fund spokesman told Reuters, declining to give details as to when it would happen.
The $850 billion oil fund is expected to join the class-action lawsuits filed against Volkswagen in German courts in the coming weeks, the newspaper said. Fund officials said last year that Volkswagen’s actions had contributed to a loss in the fund’s second quarter.
(Early investigation results clear VW execs of wrongdoing in diesel scandal. For more, Click Here.)
Volkswagen, which admitted last year it had used sophisticated secret software in its cars to cheat on exhaust emissions tests, was unavailable for comment.
The automaker recently announced it had reached a $10 billion deal with the U.S. government last month to buy back or fix about a half million of its diesel cars and set up environmental and consumer compensation funds.
However, even before the company’s cheating on emissions was made public last September, the settlement with Environmental Protection Agency does not guarantee any kind of a rebound in the U.S. where VW had faded due to a heavy dependence on passenger cars in a market where trucks and sport utility vehicles have grabbed a big share of sales overall.
(Click Here to see more about VW’s plans to meet with the UAW.)
Volkswagen also has been caught in the crossfire between the United Auto Workers and the anti-union Tennessee legislature, which holds the key to subsidies for the company’s only U.S. assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The UAW, on the other hand, has the support of IG Metall, the German metalworkers union.
VW current plans in the U.S. call for launching a new midsized SUV and a re-designed Tiguan crossover next year as the recalls and buybacks of tainted diesels rebuild consumer trust in the brand. VW also has to find ways to win over dealers angered over the loss of business, which the attribute solely to Volkswagen.
“We are not working on a defensive strategy for the United States but what we want to achieve in North America is not only to gain a foothold but to grow again,” VW brand sales chief Juergen Stackmann said in an interview published in Germany.
(VW to spend $8.8 bil to repair or buy back rigged U.S. diesel vehicles. Click Here for the latest.)
Stackman said VW plans to follow up the SUV campaign which next year will also feature an even bigger next-generation version of the flagship Touraeg model, with an all-new family of electric cars based on its new MEB modular production platform.
