Investors sue VW for 8.2 bn euros over ‘dieselgate’

Volkswagen investors have filed 1,400 lawsuits seeking 8.2 billion euros in damages over the emissions cheating scandal, a German court said Wednesday, adding to the embattled car giant’s legal woes.
Investors say the automaker failed to disclose details of the case in a timely way, leading them to lose money as the group’s share price plunged by 40 percent in two days after the crisis erupted last September.
The $9.1 billion in claims are mostly made up of “bundled” actions containing lawsuits from multiple plaintiffs, many of them private investors, according to the court in Brunswick, close to VW’s Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony headquarters.
The US government and several German state governments are also among the claimants.
Another claimant is Blackrock, the world’s largest fund manager, and a group of institutional shareholders who are suing VW for 2 billion euros.
A spokesman for Volkswagen reiterated the carmaker’s position that it “continues to believe that

Qatar planning ‘Wall Street-like’ business hub

Qatar is planning to build a new financial centre, similar to New York’s Wall Street and London’s Canary Wharf, that will serve as a pioneering financial and commercial hub in the region.
The Msheireb Downtown Doha project has a funding of more than $5bn and is located in an area currently going under massive development in an attempt to revive the commercial and historical centre of the Qatari capital.
The new project, which will cover an area of 300,000 square metres in Doha, will not only include a financial city but also a number of museums, hotels, historic sites and luxurious apartments.
The initiative was announced on Monday by Yousef al-Jaida, executive head of Qatar Financial Centre [QFC].
The aim is to improve Qatar’s financial standing and create Doha’s “version of Wall Street or Canary Wharf”, said Jaida.
“The objective … is to create a leading financial and business centre in the region,” he said.
Qatari laws state that foreign firms are required to have a local partner that owns at least a 51

MTN facing investor pressure over lower returns

South African mobile operator, MTN Group, said on Wednesday that investors were concerned with lower returns and revenue growth in spite of a boom in data traffic.

Dangote, 14 Others Gain N127bn On Stock

Equity transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday, favoured the Dangote Cement Plc and 14 other companies listed on the nation’s bourse with N127bn gain.
The recorded profit pushed up benchmark index by 1.33 per cent as the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated 370 basis points to close at 28,209.93 absolute points, and market capitalisation, also closing higher at N9.690 trn.

While the trading session favoured the 15 gaining stocks against 14 declining ones, 10 other

El-rufai Establishes Rice & Potatoes Plant In Kaduna, The Biggest In West Africa

Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has announced the establishment ofa multi billion naira French Rice/Potatoes processing plant in Manchok, Kaura local government area of the state.The processing plant after completion, would offer 30,000 direct jobs to the teaming unemployed youths in the state.

Addressing a news conference in Kaduna heralding the ground breaking of the plant scheduled for this week, state commissioner for Agriculture and Forestry, Dr.Manzo Maigari, said 5,000 hectres of land in each local government area would be allocated to community on the best ways of planting potatoes.

He explained that as one of the steps to empower farmers in the state, VICAMPRO, owner of the processing plant would buy the potatoes from the farmers for its massive

Don’t Sell NLNG or other critical assets, RMAFC Advises FG

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission on Tuesday said that Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas and other federation assets should not be sold to meet the country’s financial obligations.

The commission’s Acting Chairman, Alhaji Shettima Abba-Gana, was reacting to Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s suggestion that the country`s assets be sold off to augment the current revenue shortfall being experienced by the nation following the economic recession.

Abba-Gana, in a statement, said it would be unwise for the Federal Government to

Banks Derail Cbn’s N1tr Battle To Boost Economy

Lenders prefer traders to manufacturers, farmers

MPC retains tight monetary measures

Highlights of MPC meeting

•Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) 14%
•Cash Reserve Ration (CRR) 22.5%
•Liquidity Ratio 30%
•Asymmentric Window +200 -500

ADVOCATES of lower interest rates lost their battle yesterday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) failed to bring down rates, but tightened measures because banks:


*have refused to lend to the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, despite the injection of N1trillion into the economy;
*are lending to traders who pump the cash into foreign exchange trading, thereby increasing the unusual pressure on the naira, which exchanged for N325 and N425 to the dollar in the official and parrallel markets yesterday; and
*attempts to inject more cash without corresponding increase in industrial capacity will worsen inflation.


The MPC of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shocked pundits by retaining all the monetary policy instruments at their current levels.

Addressing journalists at the end of the MPC meeting in Abuja, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele

Despite Militancy, Oil Output Has Increased To 1.7BPD: Kachikwu

Despite calculated attacks by some militants, Nigeria’s oil production has increased from a daily average of 1,570,852 barrels per day in the last three weeks to a current week production of 1,752,536bpd, recording additional 181,684 barrels per day, Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu has said.

The Minister, who gave the figure at the Presidential Quarterly Briefing with the Private Sector