Uniper requested an increase in the credit line from KfW

MOSCOW, 29 Aug – PRIME. German energy concern Uniper has fully utilized a €9 billion credit line from Germany’s state bank KfW and has requested an extension of another €4 billion, the company’s press office said.

“Today, Uniper has raised two billion euros under the existing credit line from the KfW banking group, thereby fully using the credit line of nine billion euros. In addition, Uniper has requested an increase in the credit line from KfW by another four billion euros. This is intended to provide a short-term liquidity of the company,” the company said.

They added that the situation with Uniper’s liquidity is currently affected by the reduction in Russian gas supplies and the associated significant increase in prices for “blue fuel” and electricity.

Uniper indicated that since June 14 it has received from Russia only a part of the gas supplies agreed under the contract, the company is forced to purchase the missing volumes on the market at higher prices. “Because Uniper has so far incurred higher procurement costs alone, it is now accumulating cash losses of more than 100 million euros per day,” the press service emphasized.

On July 8, Uniper requested state support from the German government, citing a reduction in supplies from Gazprom. Later, the main shareholder of the company, Finnish Fortum, announced that an agreement had been reached with the German government on a comprehensive package of measures to stabilize the financial condition of Uniper. In particular, the German government will acquire a 30% stake in Uniper, provide it with additional capital of up to 7.7 billion euros as needed, and KfW will expand the credit line for the company to 9 billion euros from the initial 2 billion euros.