By Giulia Petroni
Shares in Uniper have bounced back strongly as the bailed-out gas supplier now expects a strong earnings recovery and no additional losses related to the replacement of Russian gas volumes.
At 1221 GMT, shares trade 13.2% higher at EUR5.25. The stock price has more than doubled from EUR2.23 a share at the end of December, after months of deep struggle that saw the utility at the brink of insolvency and that prompted a historic bailout from the German government.
The utility said last week there would be no additional losses related to the replacement of Russian gas volumes and that it expects pretax profits of more than 2 billion euros ($2.14 billion) from the procurement of replacement volumes thanks to hedging transactions.
“Uniper has solid ground under its feet again,” said Chief Financial Officer Jutta Doenges.
Supply obligations to municipal utilities and industrial customers for the 2023-24 period are currently almost fully hedged by forward contracts, according to the utility, and further equity increases by the government won’t be necessary.
At its annual general meeting, Uniper said it will present a strategy update during the summer and opened up to the possibility of a re-privatization of the company.
“The German Federal Government has pledged to the European Union to indicate by the end of this year how it intends to reduce its Uniper stake to 25% plus one share. We’ll be proposing our ideas for this in the months ahead,” Doenges said. “Our aim is to return Uniper to predominantly private hands as an independent company as quickly as possible.”
Uniper also confirmed its outlook for the full year, reiterating it expects positive adjusted net income and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes.
Meanwhile, following the government’s takeover, the company is undergoing leadership changes, with newly appointed Michael Lewis expected to take over as chief executive earlier than initially planned on June 1 and Carsten Poppinga as chief commercial officer on August 1.
Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com
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