Uniper swings to $10 billion net profit as gas prices fall
FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Germany's Uniper, which was bailed out during Europe's energy crisis, swung to a nine-month net profit of 9.77 billion euros ($10.35 billion), boosted by falling gas prices that mean the group no longer expects to make a loss on its purchases.
The result reported on Tuesday compares with a net loss of 40.3 billion euros in the same period last year, when ballooning costs to replace Russian gas triggered a crisis that required the company to be rescued by the government.
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Uniper was the biggest European corporate casualty of the energy crisis, caused by the suspension of Russian gas deliveries via the critical Nord Stream pipeline, which was later sabotaged.
Shares in the utility and gas trader, a long-time client of Gazprom before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were up 5.3% at 0853 GMT.
The results come a week after Uniper detailed its outlook for 2023, expecting adjusted operating profit (EBIT) of 6 billion to 7 billion euros and full-year adjusted net profit of 4 billion to 5 billion euros.
"This result and the outlook are literally extraordinary, and I don't expect that we'll see earnings figures of this magnitude in the next few years, although we're looking ahead with optimism," finance chief Jutta Doenges said.
The strong nine-month results are essentially due to the mark-down of derivatives Uniper uses to hedge its positions in the gas market, where a massive decline in prices has dissolved forward losses initially expected through 2024.
At the end of September, liabilities tied to derivatives, which grow or shrink in line with gas price developments, stood at 26 billion euros, down from 216 billion a year earlier.
The favourable market development effectively brings the size of Uniper's bail-out down to 25 billion euros in equity and government credit lines, less than half the amount initially expected.
The company can now focus on how to return to the market after Berlin took a 99% stake as part of the deal.
Doenges confirmed that Berlin must detail to Brussels by the end of the year how it plans to cut its stake to 25% plus one share by the end of 2028, as required by the European Union. ($1 = 0.9438 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Additional reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Rachel More, Kirsten Donovan)