The German government announced this Thursday that it has nationalized the energy company Uniper after the European Union gave its go-ahead to rescue this gas supplier company. The government announced its plan to nationalize Uniper in September, expanding state intervention in the energy sector to prevent shortages caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The operation includes an initial rescue package agreed in July and includes a capital increase of 8,000 million euros. Current Uniper shareholders approved the measures on Monday and the European Commission its conditional approval on Tuesday.
One of the conditions is that the Government reduce its participation to 25% plus one share by 2028, a term that can only be extended with the approval of the Commission. Germany's finance and economy ministries have said the government has now acquired a stake of around 99% in the company. The directors of the company continue in their positions.
Until now Uniper was controlled by Fortum, a company in which the Finnish Government is the main shareholder. Before the war in Ukraine, the company bought about half its gas from Russia, which began cutting deliveries to Germany in June and has not supplied gas to the country since late August.
Uniper has incurred huge costs because it was forced to buy gas at much higher market prices to meet its contractual supply obligations. Last month, it announced that it had initiated proceedings to seek damages from Russia's Gazprom at an international arbitration court in Stockholm.
