The Spanish Government joins the rescue of Siemens Gamesa with a line of guarantees. Yesterday night the Ministry of Industry reported that it is working on a possible line of bank guarantees for new Siemens Gamesa contracts abroad. It is an operation that will be carried out with the coverage of the Spanish Export Credit Insurance Company (Cesce) by the State, for which the Government is already in talks with both the company and the potentially interested banks.
The move by the Spanish Government came a few hours after the German Ministry of Economy announced its endorsement for Siemens Energy, the parent company of the Spanish company, to obtain loans worth 15 billion euros that would allow it to avoid bankruptcy.
Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Industry stated that “the company is key and must play an important role in energy sovereignty,” adding that all alternatives must be sought before taking what they call “drastic measures.” Specifically, they propose to analyze all the possibilities offered by the EU’s renewable regulation. They also indicate that they are in contact with the unions to protect employment and the productive capacity of the different plants in Spain.
Another avenue of action will be to use the European Wind Action Plan to implement measures to support the wind industry in the short term, with which they will be able to offer the industry access to financing through the Innovation Fund, as well as to risk reduction guarantees through the EIB.
The German rescue plan was finalized yesterday after months of negotiations. There are a total of guarantees for 15,000 million euros. Specifically, private financial entities will provide Siemens Energy with 12 billion euros in loan guarantees which, in turn, will be backed by 7.5 billion euros from the German public treasury. The remaining 3 billion would be obtained through a combination of state programs from several countries, including the respective support programs of the European Union, as well as through the optimization of contract guarantees.
This morning, Siemens Energy will give details of the German rescue plan at the company’s annual press conference. The company is also expected to announce historic losses, exceeding 4.5 billion, derived from the problems caused by the merger of its renewable division with the Spanish Gamesa and the heavy investments made in wind turbines.
The truth is that the Siemens Energy drama goes back a long way. If in 2017 the German Siemens saw in the Spanish Gamesa its opportunity to grow in a booming business, that of onshore wind energy, in recent years the situation has seriously deteriorated, now forcing this rescue operation from which it has already been They know the figures from the German side, although not yet those from the Spanish side.
