The Government of Germany announced on Monday that it will nationalize the German subsidiary of the Russian gas giant Gazprom, intervened by the State since last April. The former Gazprom Germania then acquired its new name of Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE). “The reason is the over-indebtedness in SEFE’s trade balance and the consequent risk of insolvency, which would endanger the security of supply in Germany,” the German Economy Ministry said in a statement.
This is the second nationalization of an energy company in Germany in two months, as a result of the energy crisis stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cut off of Russian gas supplies, on which this country was highly dependent. Last September, the German company Uniper, the country’s main gas importer, was also nationalized, taking 99% of the shares. Until then around half were in the hands of the Finnish firm Fortum.
Regarding the risk of insolvency of SEFE, the Ministry of Economy indicated that, “to avoid this danger and keep SEFE’s commercial activity going, the owner will now change and the company will be stabilized.” The Ministry argues that SEFE is a key company for the supply of gas to Germany.
In April, after the Russian state company Gazprom tried to liquidate its subsidiary in Germany, the government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals of Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to place it under trusteeship. With the step announced this Monday, the German Government thus technically founds a company that with a capital injection of 225,595 million euros.
In addition, the Government has decided to extend to 13,800 million euros the credit line of 11,800 million granted to the company in the spring as a stabilization measure, a part of which will be converted into equity if the European Commission authorizes it, reports Efe.
