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Inscription to Uniper headquarters: The federal government is now in
Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS
The energy company Uniper is largely nationalized.
The Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Finance announced that the federal government was involved.
Uniper has carried out a capital increase of eight billion euros, in which only the federal government was authorized to subscribe.
In addition, the federal government has bought the shares from Uniper's previous Finnish majority shareholder Fortum.
As a result, the federal government now holds around 99 percent of the company.
By the end of 2024 - Uniper estimates - the required state aid could increase to more than 30 billion euros.
The European Commission approved the state aid on Tuesday evening after Uniper's shareholders had already given the green light on Monday.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, Uniper was nationalized in order to be able to ensure security of supply in Germany.
The lack of gas deliveries from Russia had brought the group to the brink of insolvency - it had to meet its delivery obligations to its customers and buy gas at much higher prices.
In the first nine months of the year, the group accumulated a loss of 40 billion euros.
Uniper flies out of Dax
As a result of the nationalization, Uniper was dropped from the German stock index (Dax).
Uniper will be deleted from the SDax for smaller companies, Deutsche Börse announced on Wednesday evening.
The free float had fallen to below ten percent “in connection with a takeover”.
The company no longer meets the basic criteria for remaining in the index.
The adjustment will take effect on December 27th.
mmq/dpa/AFP