Uniper wants to repay 2.6 billion euros in state aid

The Düsseldorf-based energy giant Uniper, which was nationalized in 2022 during the gas crisis, is pushing ahead with the conditions for the federal government to exit - including by making repayments to the German state. The plan is for funds totaling 2.6 billion euros to flow to the Federal Republic of Germany in the first quarter of 2025, the group announced on Tuesday when presenting its 2024 annual report. "We have done the homework necessary for a return to the capital market," CEO Michael Lewis told journalists.

The basis for the repayment of the 2.6 billion euros is Uniper's "excellent results in previous years," said CFO Jutta Dönges. The amount is slightly higher than previously announced - previously, 2.5 billion euros had been mentioned. With the repayments, the company is complying with an aid requirement imposed by the EU Commission in connection with the nationalization. Last year, 530 million euros had already been paid. In total, around 3.1 billion euros would therefore benefit the German state budget and thus the taxpayers, said Dönges. According to her, the EU 's requirement - to repay to the federal government any possible "overcompensation" that may have arisen as a result of the state aid - has thus been "fulfilled."

The move is part of Uniper's general preparation for reprivatization, which the company must now discuss with a new government. "The decision on re-privatizing Uniper will be made by our majority shareholder," said Lewis. "Uniper will of course quickly seek talks with the newly elected political leaders."

Last autumn, the government at the time had already outlined an exit path: A sale on the capital market, i.e. an IPO, was the "central course of action", it said at the time. But over-the-counter disposal options were also being examined "depending on their validity". Since then, there have been many rumors about potential buyers, including allegedly the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who owns the East German lignite company LEAG and a 20 percent stake in Thyssenkrupp's steel business.

Uniper is one of the largest energy companies in Germany and, among other things, the largest gas trader and gas storage operator. The company supplies around 1,000 municipal utilities and large industrial companies. Uniper operates power plants in several European countries; in Germany, the energy giant also maintains several system-relevant power plants as a reserve for the grid.

At the end of 2022, the group had to be saved from bankruptcy by nationalization as a result of the gas crisis that followed the start of the war in Ukraine. Gas imports from Russia suddenly dried up. There were fears that Uniper could drag its many customers, including municipal utilities, into the abyss. The government stabilized Uniper with an injection of 13.5 billion euros, but the European Commission attached a number of conditions to this, including several shareholding sales that must be completed by the end of 2026. Management assured on Tuesday that good progress was being made with this. However, the bosses did not provide any details about possible buyers for the Datteln 4 coal-fired power plant or the district heating business in the Ruhr area. The sales processes for both were started in the second half of 2024.

As part of the Uniper nationalization, the European Commission also stipulated that the federal government's stake must be reduced to 25 percent plus one share by 2028. At the time, however, it was hardly foreseeable that the energy company would recover economically as quickly as it subsequently did. Uniper was already able to achieve a record profit of 6.3 billion euros in 2023.

In its 2024 balance sheet, Uniper was no longer able to achieve such earnings levels. However, the group achieved the figures it had set out to achieve and had already announced in broad terms around two weeks ago. Lewis said they were "exceptionally good figures". Uniper reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 2.6 billion euros. This is within the forecast of 2.5 to 2.8 billion euros. The company's annual profit adjusted for non-operating effects was 1.6 billion euros, compared to 4.4 billion in 2023. "As expected, the 2024 result was significantly lower than the previous year, but considered on its own it was at a very high level," said Dönges. It was foreseeable that the 2023 result would not be repeated at this level in the coming financial years. The background at the time was high trading profits and low prices for gas purchases. The Düsseldorf-based company's expectations for the current year 2025 are also below the previous year's level. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between 0.9 and 1.3 billion euros, and adjusted annual profit is expected to be between 250 and 550 million euros.

With a view to a new federal government, Uniper is primarily calling for rapid regulations for the construction of new power plants in Germany. The so-called power plant strategy is one of the greatest challenges in the energy policy of the next government coalition, said Lewis. However, the Uniper board does not expect tenders for new gas-fired power plants before the beginning of 2026. Holger Kreetz, the board member responsible for operations, described the idea of ​​having a new power plant built in this framework by the end of 2030 as "very, very ambitious".