Uniper swings to $10 billion net profit as gas prices fall

By Christoph Steitz

FRANKFURT (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 positively impacted future provisions.

The result compares with a net loss of 40.3 billion euros in the same period last year, when ballooning costs to replace Russian gas threw the company into its biggest crisis ever, triggering a government rescue.

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.

Uniper, in which the German government owns a 99% stake, became 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.

($1 = 0.9438 euros)