The energy company Uniper is largely nationalized. The Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday in a joint statement in Berlin that the federal government was involved. Uniper has carried out a capital increase of eight billion euros, in which only the federal government was authorized to subscribe. In addition, the federal government has bought the shares from Uniper’s previous Finnish majority shareholder Fortum. As a result, the federal government now holds around 99 percent of the company.
Uniper estimates that the required state aid could increase to a total of more than 30 billion euros by the end of 2024. On Wednesday, Uniper had already received a further 5.5 billion euros in fresh money. In total, Uniper received 13.5 billion euros in government support through equity measures this year. “To be clear: These are costs that Uniper and Germany incurred as a result of the war against Ukraine and the cessation of gas supplies from Russia,” said CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach.
The European Commission approved the state aid on Tuesday evening after Uniper’s shareholders had already given the green light on Monday. The Düsseldorf group found itself in existential difficulties because of the Russian gas supply stop, because gas prices then multiplied. The company has to buy the missing gas from Russia expensively on the gas market in order to fulfill its own supply contracts, which the group had concluded with its customers on more favorable terms before the crisis. This is leading to far-reaching liquidity problems at Uniper.
