Permission from the EU Commission: the federal government can support Uniper with billions

Status: 12/20/2022 8:47 p.m

The nationalization has already been decided and approved, and aid payments have now also been allowed: the federal government can save the gas supplier Uniper with up to 34.5 billion euros. His bankruptcy might have triggered a chain reaction.

The federal government can support the ailing gas importer Uniper with up to 34.5 billion euros. The EU Commission has approved the aid, announced the competition authorities. Specifically, according to the EU Commission, this involves an immediate capital increase of eight billion euros. In addition, a further capital increase of up to 26.5 billion euros is planned until 2024.

The exceptional situation in Uniper’s financial position and liquidity goes back to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the subsequent interruption in gas supplies, the EU Commission said in justification. At the same time, the measures contained the necessary precautions to limit distortions of competition.

The Commission had already agreed on Friday that Uniper can be nationalized. Uniper’s shareholders had also voted in favor of nationalization.

Aid is intended to prevent the domino effect

Uniper got into trouble because of the Russian gas supply stop, which caused prices to multiply. The company has to buy the missing gas from Russia more expensively on the market in order to fulfill old supply contracts, which leads to liquidity problems.

From January to September, Uniper made a net loss of 40 billion euros, the highest loss of a listed German company since the founding of the Federal Republic.

The supplier supplies around 500 German municipal utilities and another 500 large industrial companies with gas. Insolvency would probably have triggered a domino effect, which would also have caused difficulties for numerous customers. Because if an energy supplier fails, municipal utilities usually step in. However, since Uniper counts these regional basic suppliers among its customers, they too would falter. They would have to source the natural gas elsewhere at higher prices. The costs passed on would in turn burden millions of households and many companies.

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