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Uniper boss tells investors to back German bailout or risk all

Published by Uma Rajagopal

Posted on December 19, 2022

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FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s Uniper called on shareholders to approve a bailout and nationalisation that will cost the government more than 50 billion euros ($53 billion), warning that it will otherwise have to consider filing for insolvency.

Chief Executive Klaus-Dieter Maubach said ahead of an extraordinary shareholder meeting on Monday that the disarray caused by the loss of gas supplies from Russia could lead to shareholders walking away with nothing if they did not accept the proposal to take Uniper into German public ownership.

Gazprom was once its biggest supplier, but a big drop in deliveries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Uniper to buy gas elsewhere at much higher prices to meet its contracts.

“(The measures) are indispensable for this company’s future,” Maubach is expected to say in a speech, the text of which was published ahead of the meeting’s start at 1100 GMT.

“If approval is not granted, we would have to review very critically the so-called going concern forecast for our company,” he added. “In the Management Board’s view, a possible insolvency could lead to a complete loss for shareholders.”

If the bailout is approved, the German government will end up owning just below 99% of Uniper, Germany’s largest gas trader, following two share issues. Germany’s Finance Ministry will be responsible for the stake, Uniper said on Monday.

Current majority shareholder, Finland’s Fortum, will exit as a result, though it will retain the right to make an initial offer for Uniper’s Swedish nuclear and hydro assets by end-2026, should the company decide to sell those.

Uniper currently has no plans to do so.

The loss of Russian gas, Moscow’s retaliation for Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, triggered a 40 billion euro net loss for the importer, which provides around a third of Germany’s gas, the largest loss in German corporate history.

($1 = 0.9450 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Jane Merriman, Miranda Murray and Alexander Smith)