The ailing energy supplier gets more money from KfW and has started to take gas from the storage capacities it uses itself. Now it’s the government’s turn.
The ailing energy supplier Uniper is tapping into its remaining liquidity reserves. The MDax company announced on Monday in Düsseldorf that the possibility of taking out a loan of two billion euros from the state-owned KfW has now been taken up. The credit line is thus fully exhausted.
The pressure on the federal government to put together a rescue package for the subsidiary of the Finnish Fortum group is likely to increase. Uniper recently submitted an application for stabilization measures to the federal government. The group had agreed the credit line with the KfW banking group at the beginning of January in view of the impending war in Ukraine and the associated fluctuations on the raw materials markets and, as a precaution, extended it until the end of April 2023 at the end of March. The Uniper share was unchanged on Monday at just under EUR 9.50, at the beginning of the year it was still over EUR 40, the paper has fallen rapidly.
Uniper is the largest German gas importer and is under pressure because of the lack of Russian gas deliveries. The group has to buy more expensive gas on the market to fulfill its contracts, which leads to liquidity problems. According to company boss Klaus-Dieter Maubach, Uniper experiences daily outflows of funds in the mid double-digit million range. The company also started withdrawing gas from its own storage capacity last week. This is also done for liquidity reasons and to comply with contracts.
How a rescue should look like is still completely unclear
Meanwhile, the government is working on an aid package for Uniper. According to the chairman of the group works council, Harald Seegatz, Uniper is threatened with insolvency within a short time. “It is clear that Uniper cannot wait for weeks, but needs help in a few days,” said the supervisory board member of the news agency Bloomberg on Friday.
However, it is still unclear what this help will look like. Last but not least, Uniper and its Finnish majority owner Fortum disagree on this. Fortum is planning to restructure Uniper – with the aim of founding a security of supply company that should belong to the federal government. The group holds 78 percent of Uniper and is more than 50 percent owned by the Finnish state. Uniper, on the other hand, submitted a proposal to the federal government that, among other things, contains equity components through which the federal government could take a direct stake in Uniper. The proposal also provides for an increase in the KfW credit line. That would then be a solution like the support for Lufthansa, the airline had existential problems during the pandemic.