CEO of Uniper says that the EU has accepted that Uniper cannot sell Russian units in a bailout deal.
According to the CEO of the German utility, Uniper's Russian division Unipro is currently unsellable. The European Union acknowledged this and has approved a bailout worth 13.5 billion euros ($16.2 billion).
Berlin had to rescue Uniper in 2022 due to Europe's energy crisis. Brussels set conditions for the bailout approval, including disposing of ten assets by the end of 2026. Nine of these have already been sold or divested.
Unipro (Russia), in which Uniper owns 83.7% of the shares, is still on the list, but it has been placed under Moscow's administration, effectively stripping Uniper of all control.
Michael Lewis, the?CEO of the group, said at the Handelsblatt Energy Summit that Brussels understands Unipro as a 'different asset category' from the rest. "Brussels understands that we do not have control of it and cannot sell 'it'."
Lewis said that any future proceeds from the sale of Unipro would be a positive, since it had been written off. He also added that he expects the division to stay under Russian control.
(source: Reuters)
