Nationalization: Uniper must be saved

The gas crisis in Germany has a name: Uniper. The Düsseldorf-based company is something like the heart of Germany’s energy supply – and is currently on the verge of a heart attack. Because the largest gas trader in Germany, which supplies hundreds of municipal utilities and companies, has been on a drip with the cheap stuff from Russia for too long. Uniper has had a huge problem ever since Vladimir Putin stopped supplying it. The company has to buy the gas expensively on the market, but is only allowed to resell it at the low prices that it agreed with its customers months or years ago. The result is a fat minus.

To compensate, the company needs more government help than previously known. Together with the federal government, Uniper is examining a “direct capital increase” that would lead to a “significant majority stake by the federal government,” it said on Wednesday. Translated, this means: Uniper could be nationalized.

The federal government had already decided at the beginning of July to take a 30 percent stake in Uniper and make 7.7 billion euros available. But now it is clear that this is far from enough, because the gas price has meanwhile risen significantly higher than forecast in the original plan.

The assumption that Russia would deliver at least 40 percent of the initially agreed gas volume through Nord Stream 1 also turned out to be wrong. The law of the American engineer Edward A. Murphy currently applies to Germany’s largest gas trader: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Not only the federal government, but also the European Union wants to take action in the energy crisis. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised yesterday to relieve households and companies of the high prices for electricity and gas. The member states should siphon off part of the high profits from energy companies. Von der Leyen is hoping for up to 140 billion euros that could be redistributed.

A little bit of hope makes the surprising observation that the gas price has been falling noticeably again for about two and a half weeks. On the Dutch TTF exchange, which is regarded as trend-setting for the European market, the price had meanwhile been 346 euros – yesterday a megawatt hour then cost just under 200 euros.

The reason for the development can be summed up in one word: hysteria. Because the gas market has a sensitive mind. At first panic broke out, prices rose and rose. But now things are calming down a bit. Our energy expert Kathrin Witsch reveals why.

However, there is no reason to give the all-clear in the energy crisis. The experts are particularly worried about you and me: While the industry consumed over twenty percent less natural gas in the summer than in the last three years, we end consumers seem to continue to live beyond our energy resources. Total gas consumption in Germany in July and August was even higher than in the previous year.

In view of these conditions, Baden-Württemberg’s Green Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann never tires of emphasizing that you don’t have to be “clever” to save energy. In a video from his state government, the savings fox from Swabia advises, for example, to turn down the heating or turn off the water when brushing your teeth.

However, it is questionable whether such “clever” moves will satisfy the head of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller. According to Müller, the real problem with the high consumption is that owners, tenants and housing associations have not yet changed their heating systems.

But consuming too much too soon carries the risk of a cold winter. What the top network watchdog prophesies in the Handelsblatt interview does not make you want to look forward to the coming months: “There are gas shortages, they go, they come back, they appear here and there, possibly also throughout Germany.”

As if German companies didn’t already have enough to worry about with inflation, the energy crisis and the threat of recession, they are also expected to gradually break away from China. The fear of becoming too dependent on the Asian giant is great, especially against the background of a possible escalation in the conflict with Taiwan. As the President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) Siegfried Russwurm warns: “Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea.”

New figures now show how many eggs from German companies actually end up in the Chinese basket. There are very many.

In 2021, German investments accounted for 46 percent of the total European investment volume in China. In the past four years, the average has been 43 percent. Volkswagen was right at the forefront – the car manufacturer made it into the top 3 of the largest European investors every year during this period. Competitor Daimler, which split into Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck in December 2021, and the chemical company BASF were also at the forefront. But there are also companies that are already one step further in saying goodbye to China. China expert Dana Heide reveals what these are.

And then there’s Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who, after her death a week ago, will be laid out well preserved in Westminster Hall until Monday. To say goodbye to Her Majesty at the coffin, Brits and tourists had to queue five kilometers on Wednesday.

The new king, Charles III, paid his respects to his mother at the wake at London’s St Giles Cathedral on Monday. If you are concerned about the elderly gentleman’s financial situation, don’t worry. Unlike the common people, the monarch does not have to pay the otherwise due 40 percent inheritance tax on the royal estate.

At the same time, Charles inherits a very special right: as king, he can claim for himself all the whales, sturgeon and dolphins that wash up on the British coast. The same applies to swans in open water. It remains to be seen how often Charles will exercise his right as king of the beasts.

I wish you a day without disturbance,

Best regards
Her

Teresa Stiens
Editor of the Handelsblatt

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