“All the headhunters wanted to poach my top executives”

How things will continue for the Düsseldorf group is uncertain. The EU has instructed Uniper to sell its own state-of-the-art hard coal-fired power plant Datteln 4. The question is whether the future of the company still lies in power generation or in trading in pipeline gas, liquefied natural gas and hydrogen – or whether the federal government has completely different plans for Uniper.

Read the whole interview here:

Mr. Maubach, you have decided to resign from Uniper. What were the key reasons?
The past year was the most difficult year of my professional life. But at the end of last year we stabilized the company. There is a new shareholder – the federal government holds 99.12 percent. And we have a new supervisory board on the shareholder side. There is a new chapter now and it has to be written by new leaders.

You have probably seen how dependent Uniper is on Russia. That already existed before the situation escalated. You are not responsible for the fact that it has come to this. But couldn’t you have changed something early on or warned someone?
Uniper’s story is a story of Russia’s withdrawal. We have sold our stake in the Russian gas field Yuzhno-Russkoye. Back in 2021, we spoke to the Russian government about selling our stake in Russian power producer Unipro. The withdrawal from Russia had begun. In fact, the question of Russian long-term contracts has been assessed very differently in the past two years. Uniper has operated with the support of the federal government for many decades and we are all equally disappointed with how it has gone.

“The federal government was the only 100 percent reliable partner for us”

In your opinion, how did the rescue of Uniper go?
Uniper has shown incredible resilience over the past year. It’s not just that Gazprom stopped supplying us with gas. With the non-delivery and liquidity challenges we had, the rating agencies downgraded us. All suppliers have requested higher security. Other partners no longer wanted to conclude contracts with us. All the headhunters in Germany tried to poach my top executives. My company showed incredible resilience, and I’m proud of that.

Are you satisfied with the cooperation with the federal government?
For us, the federal government was the only 100 percent reliable partner in the past year. I don’t criticize the suppliers and I don’t criticize anyone who tries to help my executives – but the federal government saved this company. I am very grateful for that.

You can now speak with complete freedom: How could Uniper continue? How could Uniper possibly be split up?
2023 will be a transition phase. We have a number of requirements from the EU Commission that we will implement. We have many changes in the board team. And then we will have to deal with our strategy. When we were still part of the Fortum group, we developed four growth platforms, all four of which we would have liked to have driven in parallel. It’s clear that we can’t let these four platforms grow in parallel now, we don’t have the means to do so. So there will have to be discussions with the new board and the new shareholder about which platforms will be further developed.

Which platforms are these?
On the one hand, there are renewable energies. Of course we are a long way behind others, but we would like to push that forward. We also have major activities in the field of hydrogen and clean gas, which we also want to play a part in. We are the largest LNG player in Germany. This has now become a huge issue for us. The topic of hydrogen-capable gas power plants is also a major topic for the future. We can do that, we have power plants, we have locations.

Should all these strands be pursued further? In addition to Uniper, the federal government also owns the gas importer Sefe, which was formerly called Gazprom Germania. And the East German gas importer VNG is also largely in municipal hands. These companies are now all pursuing the LNG and hydrogen strands. Should they continue to do this separately from each other, or does it perhaps make sense to create new structures?
You must ask Mr. Habeck this question.

The construction of the first LNG terminals for Germany went very quickly. Would you have thought that half a year ago?
no When I called our project manager in March and said that he had to build a terminal, he replied: “Not again!” But this time we had the support of the federal government. And the contribution of the federal, state and local authorities was really enormous. They all worked hand in hand. Germany can. Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister, Olaf Lies, coined the word “Germany speed” for this. I wish that we could do it that way in many areas.

>> Read also: There is a risk of overcapacity for LNG – is Germany building too many terminals?

… for example when it comes to gas power plants? According to the will of the federal government, many new ones are to be built. Will Uniper be involved?
We can do that. We have a gas fleet in Europe and Germany, we have locations and a good infrastructure. In particular, our existing coal-fired power plants, most of which will be shut down in the next few years, are ideal locations in terms of infrastructure. Of course you need conditions that are attractive for investments, they don’t exist yet. When that happens, we’re ready.

It sounds as if Uniper has big plans. But there is also the thought game that Uniper will have to sell all power plants and be reduced to the currently loss-making gas trading business. And you go now. Can you recommend anyone to still apply to Uniper – or to stay there?
If I were ten years younger, I would do it myself.

And what are you going to do next?
I’m still doing my job until a successor is found. And when I’m done with that, I’ll take a break and then I’ll have a look.
Mr. Maubach, thank you very much for the interview.

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