Uniper To Start Repaying State Bailout After $6.8-B Profit

Uniper will start to set aside money to pay back the billions it received from the German government as part of a bailout during Europe's energy crisis, it said after swinging to a 6.3 billion euro ($6.8 billion) operating profit, Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff reported for Reuters.

The move is the strongest sign yet that Europe's energy sector has turned a corner after severing most of its ties with Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war, with Uniper the most high-profile casualty of the ensuing crisis. I Photo: Uniper

The move is the strongest sign yet that Europe's energy sector has turned a corner after severing most of its ties with Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war, with Uniper the most high-profile casualty of the ensuing crisis.

After Russia, Uniper's main gas supplier, stopped deliveries in 2022, Berlin had to step in with a 13.5-billion-euro state bailout that gave the German government a 99.12% stake in the energy company.

Uniper on Thursday said that it would build a 2.3-billion-euro provision to start repaying that amount, benefiting from a one-off effect after the company's gas wholesale price projections turned out to be too pessimistic.

More favorable price developments and successful hedging in coal- and gas-fired power generation as well as at its trading business helped Uniper swing to adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 6.3 billion euros last year, from a year-earlier loss of 10.9 billion.

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