German utility Uniper SE, which secured a 15 billion euro (US$15.3 billion) state bailout last month, reported a net loss of 12.3 billion euros for the first half of this year, mainly due to lower Russian gas supplies that forced it to buy at higher prices elsewhere.
“Uniper has, for months, been playing a crucial role in stabilizing Germany’s gas supply — at the cost of billions in losses resulting from the sharp drop in gas deliveries from Russia,” chief executive Klaus-Dieter Maubach said.
Uniper, Germany’s largest importer of Russian gas, said more than half of the net loss was due to significantly reduced gas deliveries from Moscow, which has cut flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just one-fifth.
Photo: Bloomberg
The loss also includes 2.7 billion euros in impairments related to the canceled Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which Uniper backed financially, in addition to goodwills of its Russian business Unipro.
ALTERNATIVE SUPPLIES
“The most urgent task for Uniper is to find alternative gas supplies,” Third Bridge Group Ltd analyst Allegra Dawes said, adding that it expected deliveries of liquefied natural gas via a planned Uniper-led terminal in Wilhelmshaven by the first half of next year.
As part of the state bailout, Germany would take a 30 percent shareholding in Uniper and has pledged 9 billion euros of credit lines via state-lender KfW Group — 5 billion euros of which have been drawn.
“This will prevent a chain reaction that would do much more damage. Our top priority now is to swiftly implement the stabilization package,” Maubach said.
Uniper expects the package to be approved at an extraordinary general meeting in the autumn.
It said it was unable to give an outlook for this year, only saying it expected a loss.
Profits are forecast to improve next year and the aim is to leave the “loss zone” in early 2024, Uniper chief financial officer Tiina Tuomela said.
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