Boutique wealth management firm Cerno Capital is participating in the litigation seeking damages from Volkswagen.
James Spence, managing partner at the boutique, said that the following the emissions scandal, Cerno sold out of its position in the automotive company and joined an investors’ group to join in the litigation in Germany.
Saying that it is the only litigation that the company has ever been involved in, Spence pointed out that he felt it was important to be in a part of it following the scandal.
He said ‘We were investors in VW and when the emissions scandal broke we sold the position entirely and we are participating in the litigation against VW to seek compensation on behalf of investors. That grinds on. But we hope and expect to be successful on behalf of investors’.
Last year, it was reported that fund management giant BlackRock had also joined a shareholder lawsuit, demanding €2 billion (£1.7 billion). The car manufacturer was slapped with damages claims totally €8.2 billion by investors in September.
There are currently around 1,400 lawsuits against the company at a court in Braunschweig, Germany.
Elsewhere, Cerno Capital has appointed Jane Tufnell, who co-founded Ruffer Investments, to its advisory board.She stepped down from Ruffer in 2014 and was appointed non-executive chair GVQ Investment Management in 2015.
Spence added ‘We are really excited about her joining us. Most of our non-executive partners have been with us for a long time. Jane is the most recent addition. She is a rigorous person, she has lots of well thought out ideas and is robust in her way of communicating them.’
This article first appeared in Citywire Wealth Manager and was written by Selin Bucak