Dusseldorf The energy company Uniper, which is about to be nationalized, made a loss of around 40 billion euros after the first nine months of 2022. The company announced this on Thursday morning as part of its presentation of the quarterly figures. This loss includes expected losses from future gas deliveries.
The loss of Uniper is so gigantic that an equivalent case can hardly be found in German company history. Deutsche Telekom was in a similar way in 2002 with a loss of “only” almost 25 billion euros. After the Telekom share was publicly hyped, it fell after the business success could not keep up, among other things due to expensive investments.
At Uniper, the current loss includes costs of around ten billion euros for the procurement of replacement gas. Around 31 billion euros come from expected future losses because Russia no longer supplies gas to Germany.
The loss is so high that it accounts for more than half of Uniper’s share capital. The Düsseldorf-based company had already announced last week that the loss would be “in the tens of billions”.
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According to a spokesman, this meant that the company had to convene an extraordinary general meeting under Section 92 of the German Stock Corporation Act. This could possibly take place in addition to the annual general meeting planned for the state takeover.
The high loss reflects the problem that Uniper was created by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. For years, the group has received cheap gas from Russia and sold it on to German companies and public utilities at a higher price. Uniper obtained more than half of its gas from Russia, making itself dependent on the Kremlin.
Some of the contracts with German customers still run for several years, and Uniper must continue to supply them with gas. But the group itself no longer receives supplies from Russia. He therefore has to buy gas on the market at extremely high prices and sell it to his customers at a lower price – a loss-making business every day.
>> Read also: An additional 40 billion euros – the rescue of Uniper is becoming more and more expensive
At times, Uniper recorded losses of more than 100 million euros per day. Recently, gas prices on the stock exchange have fallen again significantly. On Thursday, the TTF price for monthly contracts was still around 125 euros per megawatt hour. In August it had risen to up to 350 euros. In short-term trading, prices have recently fallen to pre-war levels at times.
There are currently almost no new daily losses due to the fall in prices, as Uniper CFO Tiina Tuomela announced in a call to analysts on Thursday morning. However, if gas prices rise, the losses will increase again.
Billion challenge for the state
The problem will also lie with the German state in the future. He has agreed to take over the crisis group Uniper. At the end of December, the existing shareholders are to vote on this at an unscheduled general meeting. Analyst Ingo Becker from Bank Kepler Cheuvreux says: “The losses at Uniper are to be expected as costs for the German state.”
The federal government will have to fill a large financial gap at Uniper in the coming years. In the past few months, she has already created 18 billion euros in credit options for the group via the state bank KfW, of which Uniper had already drawn down 14 billion by the end of October.
Uniper is systemically important for the German gas supply. The company supplies gas to hundreds of energy suppliers, who in turn sell it to German households. In order to finally save the Düsseldorf-based company, Berlin had agreed in September to subscribe to an eight billion euro capital increase at Uniper.
The minus of the group is growing every day.
(Photo: dpa)
The federal government would buy its Uniper shares from the previous majority shareholder, the Finnish state-owned company Fortum, at the nominal value for a total of almost 500 million euros. The federal government would get a 99 percent stake in the company.
Billions more planned
But now at the latest it is clear that the state has to spend even more money than provided for in the original Uniper rescue package. An insider told the Handelsblatt some time ago: “In total, this could result in additional costs of ten to 40 billion euros.” This corresponds exactly to the anticipated loss that Uniper has now presented.
>> Read here: Uniper with a loss of billions – two extraordinary general meetings possible
Uniper officially only says that the details of additional support measures are currently being finalized between the federal government and Uniper. CFO Tuomela spoke of a “tailor-made instrument” that was being developed.
In any case, the exact amount of the necessary aid depends on how the gas price develops on the market. The new support concept for Uniper should therefore contain generous buffers. As a first step, the government could invest up to 15 billion euros more in the company for the current year alone.
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