German authorities may nationalize Uniper amid crisis, media write

MOSCOW, 14 Sep — PRIME. The German government is discussing increasing its stake in the country’s largest gas importer, Uniper, and, if necessary, nationalizing the company, Bloomberg reports citing its sources.

The German government may increase its stake in Uniper SE above 50% and is ready to take the historic step of fully nationalizing the country’s largest gas importer if necessary to prevent a collapse of the energy system.

It is noted that Uniper needs additional assistance from the state after it has already taken advantage of a support package that could cost up to 20 billion euros.

The company, referring to the reduction in supplies from Gazprom, on July 8 requested state support from the German government. Later, the company’s main shareholder, Finnish Fortum, announced that it had reached an agreement with Germany on a comprehensive package of measures to stabilize Uniper’s financial condition.

In particular, the German authorities decided to acquire a 30% stake in Uniper, provide it with additional capital of up to 7.7 billion euros as needed, and the German state bank KfW expanded the credit line for the company to 9 billion euros from the initial 2 billion euros. In August, the company said it had fully used a €9 billion credit line from KfW and requested an extension of another €4 billion.