Uniper expects profits to recover as gas prices ease
FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Bailed-out gas trader Uniper expects profits to recover in 2023 after last year's record loss, as a decline in gas prices should reduce the cost of replacing fuel previously provided by its main supplier Gazprom.
Adjusted operating profit (EBIT) and adjusted net profit are both expected to improve in 2023, Uniper said. In 2022, it posted an adjusted loss before interest and tax of 10.9 billion euros ($11.6 billion) and an adjusted net loss of 7.4 billion euros.
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Uniper, which has become the biggest casualty of Europe's energy crisis and was nationalised last year, said the forecast was driven a fall in gas prices that has already reduced expected procurement costs.
It has also reduced derivative positions, which are priced at the end of each quarter and reflect energy price developments, by nearly two-thirds to 76 billion euros at the end of December compared to end-September.
Outgoing Uniper Chief Executive Klaus-Dieter Maubach expects the impact of lower gas prices to give the group's future leadership more scope to accelerate the group's turnaround.
"The task of the new management board and supervisory board will be to continue to develop Uniper and make it profitable again," Maubach said. ($1 = 0.9406 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff Editing by Miranda Murray and Barbara Lewis)