The Nordic region’s largest asset manager has become the first to confirm it will sue Volkswagen over its deceit regarding emissions, which has resulted in huge losses for investment managers globally.
Nordea Asset Management, which manages about €190 billion of assets, said it plans to join “several different class actions” against Volkswagen.
Lawyers have been circling the German carmaker since US regulators in September accused it of using “defeat devices” to cheat US emissions tests for its diesel cars.
“[The investors in our funds] should not bear the cost of VW fraud,” said Sasja Beslik, head of responsible investments at Nordea’s fund arm. “Given how deep and rife this scandal is, we want to evaluate both European and US class actions in order to [find the best options for us].”
VW’s share price has plunged almost 40 per cent since September, leaving investors with billions in losses.
Among those worst affected is Norway’s oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. It lost 4.9 billion Norwegian krone (about €500 million), from its stake in VW during the three months until the end of September. The fund is one of VW’s largest shareholders and had a 1.2 per cent stake in the company at the end of 2014.
Offloaded
Nordea, which banned its fund managers from making any further investments in the carmaker after details of the emissions problems emerged, had about half a million VW shares, worth more than €80 million, in September. It has since offloaded 90 per cent of its shares. Mr Beslik said: “Investors are evaluating how to protect their losses.”
It is understood several other institutional investors are weighing up taking legal action against the carmaker.
A spokesperson for APG, a Dutch pension fund that manages €400 billion, said: “We are reviewing our options and are not ruling out legal action.”
Clive Zietman, head of commercial litigation at Stewarts Law, said asset managers had contacted him about VW.
Class actions against VW have already been filed in the US and Australia.
Advanced talks
DSW, a German shareholder association, said it is in “advanced” talks with private and institutional investors across Europe and the US about taking legal action in VW’s home market.
Bentham
Europe, a litigation finance group, said it is in talks with VW’s top 200 investors and plans to launch a claim in Germany. VW was not available for comment. – © Financial Times Limited 2015
