The German energy group Uniper recorded a large loss of 40 billion euros due to Russia’s actions to limit natural gas supplies. According to economic history professor Mark Schperer, the soon-to-be-owned German state’s losses are the largest in German business history, second only to Deutsche Telekom’s 25 billion euros in 2002. from Regensburg. Specifically, Uniper recorded a net loss of EUR 40.4 billion in the first nine months of the year, a sharp and significant increase from the EUR 4.7 billion loss recorded in the same period last year. Its revenues for the period under review amounted to 213 billion euros, almost three times the 78 billion euros for the same period last year, according to a Financial Times report. As for the third quarter from July to September, the loss of Uniper amounted to almost 28 billion euros. It is recalled that the ever-increasing price of natural gas, caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against it by Western countries, plunged the group into a serious crisis. And this is the reason why the German government nationalized the company. After Moscow cut off gas supplies, Uniper, once Europe’s largest importer of Russian gas, was forced to buy more expensive fuel on the spot market.

“In order to ensure the adequacy of supplies to its customers, Uniper has been purchasing gas at significantly higher prices for some time. Thus, serious losses were recorded, because the costs of replacing the supply of new gas are not passed on to consumers,” said Tina Tuomela, the company’s chief financial officer. “Half-year numbers have already shown us that this has had a big impact on our financial results,” he added. Uniper said the €40.4bn loss includes “approximately €10bn of realized volume replacement costs and around €31bn of expected future losses from changes in the pricing of derivative financial gas supplies in Russia. .

In September, the German government pushed through a massive bailout program for Uniper to keep it from going bankrupt. It was estimated at several billion euros and included the acquisition of the previous owner Fortum’s stake in the group, as well as cash injections of 8 billion euros. Uniper’s short-term liquidity was supported by an €18bn credit line from German state-owned bank KfW. Uniper said it had raised €14 billion by 31 October. Finally, as Tiina Tuomela emphasized, “At the moment, the implementation of the rescue and stabilization program is the highest priority for us.” Since the beginning of the year, Uniper’s share price has fallen by 93%, bringing the company’s market value to 1.1 billion euros from 15.2 billion euros on January 3, 2022.