VW SAYS 480 MLN MARKS MAXIMUM FOR CURRENCY LOSSES Losses for Volkswagen AG <VOWG.F>, VW, linked to an alleged foreign currency fraud will not exceed the 480 mln marks provision already made, a VW spokesman said. The spokesman was commenting after VW had confirmed it would pay an unchanged 10 mark dividend for ordinary shares on 1986 business, despite the provision. One West German newspaper today quoted foreign currency dealers in Frankfurt as speculating that the total losses from the currency affair could be as high as 1.5 billion marks, but the VW spokesman described 480 mln marks as an "upper limit." VW said in a statement following today's supervisory board meeting that it had discussed the foreign currency scandal in detail, and was setting up a new probe into its foreign currency activities to be carried out by an unnamed auditing company. VW has said computer programs were erased and documents were faked in the alleged fraud in which it believes transactions intended to protect it against possible foreign currency losses were not completed. VW's former foreign currency chief Burkhard Junger was arrested on Monday on suspicion of embezzlement and of having evaded justice. Earlier VW had said that its 1986 results would match 1985 profits. VW's group net profit in 1985 was 596 mln marks and parent company net was 477 mln marks. It also said it recommend an unchanged dividend to the supervisory board. The company has also set a dividend of 11 marks for new preference shares, which were issued last year. Analysts have described the held dividend as a move to reassure worried shareholders. VW increased nominal capital by 300 marks last year to 1.5 billion marks, with the result that its total dividend payment on 1986 will be 306 mln marks compared with 240 mln on 1985, since the new capital was in preference shares. The share analysts say VW will have to dig into reserves in order to maintain the disclosed 1986 profit at 1985 levels. At the end of 1985, VW had parent company reserves of slightly less than three billion marks.