The company is still trying to identify those responsible and organise refits for some 11 million vehicles worldwide.
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Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday downgraded VW’s credit rating to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A-‘, the latest demotion of the carmaker’s credit worthiness following similar moves by peers Fitch and Moody’s.
It comes amid mixed news for Volkswagen: though the company has made progress toward a simpler-than-expected recall of 8.5 million rigged diesel cars in Europe, plummeting US sales show the impact of the crisis on the showroom floor.
“Volkswagen’s fraudulent scheme was facilitated and aided and abetted by defendant Bosch, which created the software used in Volkswagen’s defeat device”, states the 56-page lawsuit, which accuses Bosch together with VW, its former CEO Martin Winterkorn and current chief executive Michael Horn of violating civil racketeering laws and consumer fraud.
Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has split a 20 billion euro (£14.1 billion) bridge loan between 13 banks to help shoulder the costs of its emissions scandal, two people familiar with the matter said.
S&P said “risks and related costs continue to expand and deepen, particularly following the recent disclosures regarding the misrepresentation of Carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption levels”.
One of the people said credit portions would have maturities of one year, and would be assigned to banks on Friday.
A lawsuit has been filed in the United States against German engineering and electronics company Bosch because of the firm’s participation in Volkswagen’s emission-cheating practices.
Wolfgang Porsche is the grandson of the creator of the Volkswagen Beetle.
The family votes in a bloc, making consensus building crucial among its 30 to 40 members.
Porsche SE, a publicly traded holding company that owns 52.2 percent of VW ordinary shares, is the biggest shareholder in VW. The clan tends to keep a low profile, and most live around the border of Germany and Austria.
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The company will shut its production complex in Wolfsburg, one of the largest in the world, for two weeks during the Christmas holiday to forestall the bloating of vehicle inventories.
