A four with ten zeros: The gas crisis brought the energy company Uniper the biggest loss of a listed German company since the founding of the Federal Republic. In the first nine months, Germany’s largest gas trader slipped so deeply into the red because the group and its predecessor Ruhrgas relied on cheap gas from Russia for decades. After the Russian deliveries stopped, Uniper had to buy the gas on the market, where prices had exploded. Now the group has to reposition itself – with the federal government as the savior in times of need and a new owner.
Uniper announced on Thursday that the loss included costs for gas replacement volumes of ten billion euros. Expected future losses from valuation effects of EUR 31 billion also had an impact. The Düsseldorf company had already presented some preliminary figures last week and warned of further burdens in the tens of billions.
With the current record loss, Uniper has overtaken Deutsche Telekom, which had a loss of around 25 billion euros on its books in 2002. The energy company Eon posted a deficit of 16 billion euros in 2016. “In order to ensure security of supply for customers, Uniper has been buying gas quantities at significantly higher prices for some time and, as is well known, has accumulated considerable losses because the gas replacement procurement costs are not passed on to consumers,” explains CFO Tiina Tuomela. “The fact that this is having a massive impact on our financial results has already become apparent in the half-year figures.”
There is also a glimmer of hope: the falling gas price
The Uniper share was down 5.3 percent at less than three euros, at the end of 2021 it was still worth over 42 euros – a price slide of 93 percent. According to the company, the group has received loans of 18 billion euros from the state-owned KfW bank. By the end of October around 14 billion euros had been used. But there are also glimmers of hope. The situation on the gas market has eased somewhat after record prices in August. Tuomela explained that Uniper is benefiting from the fact that the gas price has fallen sharply in recent weeks due to the warm weather and the well-stocked gas storage facilities. The daily losses in the procurement of replacements are now almost zero. At times, according to CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach, they were over 100 million euros.
After more and more holes, the state wants to acquire 99 percent of the Uniper shares. A capital increase at Uniper of EUR 8 billion at EUR 1.70 per share serves this purpose. At the same price per share, the federal government takes over the shares of the Finnish parent company Fortum. Some details still have to be clarified by the federal government with Uniper and Fortum. The implementation of this stabilization package has the highest priority, said Uniper CFO Tuomela. In addition, the shareholders must agree. An extraordinary general meeting is planned for this purpose in the second half of December.
Another is due because of the high losses, Uniper wants to merge them before Christmas if possible. It is unclear how the possible sale of the Russian subsidiary Unipro, in which Uniper holds almost 84 percent, will continue. The good performance of the business has increased interest, but the situation in Russia is not easy, said CFO Tuomela. In principle, the group does not comment on individual discussions. The Russian power generation division was able to double its operating profit to 331 million euros in the first nine months.