Energy crisis
Next electricity provider files for bankruptcy due to high energy prices
Electricity providers cannot withstand the high energy prices (symbol photo)
© Christoph Hardt / Geisler-Fotopres / Picture Alliance
Just last week, an electricity provider went bankrupt because of the high energy prices. Now the next electricity provider has filed for bankruptcy. The energy crisis is increasingly bringing companies to their knees.
Energy prices are currently at an extreme high. In addition to oil, electricity and natural gas are also more expensive than last year. The energy crisis has now led the Hamburg energy company “Smiling Green Energy” into insolvency. The provider, who supplies private and commercial customers with electricity from renewable energies under the brand name “Naturally Green Electricity”, has filed for bankruptcy. The Wirtschaftswoche reported on Tuesday.
The Hamburg district court appointed the lawyer Tobias Brinkmann, partner of the insolvency law firm Brinkmann & Partner, as preliminary insolvency administrator. Now it is necessary to “check whether it is possible to maintain business operations,” Brinkmann explains to the magazine.
“The rapid rise in energy prices was the main trigger for the bankruptcy of Smiling Green Energy,” said the lawyer. If a company has agreed long-term contracts with its customers at lower prices, “but now has to buy expensive on the spot market in order to fulfill the contracts, that inevitably leads to problems”. According to Brinkmann, “the entire industry is under considerable pressure”. The insolvency of Smiling Green Energy is “thus possibly only the prelude to further bankruptcies in the market”.
Another electricity and gas provider insolvent
Last week, the electricity and gas provider “Otima” filed for bankruptcy. The reason for this are “massively increased wholesale prices” and the “massive increase in prepayment and security payments” that the company had to pay to its market partners. Furthermore, “Otima” speaks on its homepage of “severe restrictions with regard to the available quantities on the procurement side due to the (…) resulting limited liquidity of the company”. In addition, the upstream supplier for electricity was no longer available and the company was subsequently unable to find a new upstream supplier. “Otima” finally stopped supplying its customers with electricity on October 12th.
Sources: Wirtschaftswoche, Otima