Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, is planning to sue German automaker Volkswagen AG over the impact of its emissions scandal, the Financial Times reported.
The oil fund is expected in the coming weeks to join the class-action lawsuits filed against Volkswagen in German courts in the coming weeks, the newspaper reported.
“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,” Petter Johnsen, chief investment officer for equity strategies at Norges Bank Investment Management, the manager of the oil fund, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
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Norway’s wealth fund said last year that Volkswagen, which admitted last year that it had used sophisticated secret software in its cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests, had contributed to a loss of 4.9 billion crowns in the fund’s second quarter.
The carmaker reached a nearly $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.
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Norway’s wealth fund also recently turned up the heat on U.S. oil companies Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) to do more to report on the risks of climate change.
The fund, itself built from Norway’s oil and gas wealth, had also made similar demands of oil firms worldwide.