Fitch downgrades Volkswagen´s long-term debt rating

The inability of Volkswagen´s top management to either notice or correct the events leading up to the fraud on emissions tests involving 11m vehicles meant the manufacturer did not warrant an A debt rating, Fitch said.

For that reason, on Monday the agency lowered its rating on the company´s long-term debt to BBB+ from A, with a 'negative' outlook.

Fitch´s previous rating on the firm´s debt already took the company´s weak corporate governance into account, but it said that "the emergence of a fraud of this magnitude, going either unnoticed or uncorrected by top management for so long is not consistent with a rating in the 'A' category."

The recent admission by Volkswagen that it understated carbon dioxide emissions on 800,000 vehicles only strengthened that view, highlighting "the fundamental issue of internal control failure within the group".

As of 16:25 shares in the manufacturer were trading lower by 0.82% to €121.2.