Uniper improves outlook through energy market hedging transactions

The German energy group Uniper has refined its outlook for the full year after an unexpectedly positive nine months, reported dpa.

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes should be €6 billion to €7 billion ($6.4 billion to $7.4 billion) in 2023, the company said in Dusseldorf on Tuesday.

Adjusted net income is expected to be between €4 billion and €5 billion.

In the first nine months of the current year, the operating result was reportedly a profit of just under €5.5 billion - after a loss of €5 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. Adjusted net income was plus €3.7 billion after being €3.4 billion in minus territory the year before.

Germany's largest gas trader said in its earnings statement that it continues to benefit from hedging transactions, especially in the areas of electricity generation from coal and gas-fired power plants as well as in the gas transport and storage business.

Uniper was successful in hedging open gas delivery obligations through forward transactions after Russian gas deliveries were stopped. This positive one-off effect had continued in the third quarter and supported the results in the current financial year.

Uniper hit severe financial problems due to the high costs of taking over the gas lines following the Russian gas supply cut-off prompted by Western sanctions in the wake of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The German government then put together a billion-euro stabilisation package, of which Uniper received €13.5 billion.

Since then, the German government has held around 99% of Uniper shares. By the end of 2028, the government must reduce its share to 25% plus one share due to conditions imposed by the European Commission.