Swedish pension fund to sue Petrobras

One of Sweden's largest investors has pledged to take direct legal action against Petrobras, becoming the third large investor to seek damages individually from the Brazilian oil group.

The $30 billion AP1 pension fund plans to sue Petrobras separately from an existing class action lawsuit after revelations of a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at Brazil’s biggest company by sales. A spokesperson for AP1, which held 3.7m of Petrobras shares at the end of December, said: “We have opted out from the class action and intend to have our own process against the company.”

In the past two weeks, Dimensional Fund Advisors, the US fund house, and six New York City pension funds also opted out of the class action to sue Petrobras for losses suffered as a result of bribery alleged to have taken place between 2004 and 2012.

The investor suits, which have been filed in the New York court system, claim that the company misstated the value of its assets and made misleading statements about its anti-corruption policies and internal financial reporting controls. Petrobras stock was consequently sold at artificially inflated prices, according to the legal filings. The company declined to comment.

– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)