Germany may nationalize Uniper amid crisis

Germany is considering the possibility of nationalizing the largest German gas distributor Uniper amid the worsening energy crisis. After such a decision is made, the government's share in the largest gas importer in Germany may exceed 50%.

«The parties are looking into alternative solutions, inter alia a straight equity increase that would result in a significant majority participation by the German Government,» the energy company said in a press release.

The German authorities note that the increase in natural gas prices and the reduction of supplies from Russia have led to daily losses of millions of dollars for Uniper. In July, the company requested assistance from the German government, as a result of which 30% of Uniper shares were transferred to the country.

After that, the share of the Finnish company Fortum in Uniper decreased to 56%. Nevertheless, Fortum will remain the controlling shareholder of Uniper for now.

In August of this year, it was reported that Uniper reported a loss of 12.4 billion euros ($12.6 billion) for the first half of the year due to the fact that it had to buy gas on the spot market at sky-high prices to compensate for the shortage of cheaper Russian gas.