By Cristina Roca
Shares in Uniper SE traded sharply lower Wednesday after the company posted a much-wider loss for the first half of 2022, showing the extent of the hit it took from a reduction in Russian gas shipments.
The German utility /zigman2/quotes/208981032/delayed XE:UN01 -0.65% reported a net loss of 12.35 billion euros ($12.56 billion), compared with a EUR20 million loss a year earlier. It said it couldn’t give a guidance range for 2022 due to volatile conditions, but that it expects negative earnings for the year.
Its earnings should improve in 2023 and it hopes to stop being lossmaking in 2024, it said.
At 0716 GMT, Uniper shares were down 9.4% at EUR7.02.
Uniper said that, amid lower Russian gas deliveries, it was forced to buy gas at higher spot-market prices in order to fulfill its customer contracts.
Its first-half loss also reflects about EUR6.5 billion in anticipated hits from future gas curtailments. About EUR2.7 billion in impairments on a loan to the now-frozen Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project and goodwill on two units also weighed on its results.
“For now Uniper remains in the eye of the storm of the European energy crisis and, with potential volatility in earnings, it is no surprise that management have declined to provide precise financial guidance for the next three years, and only has an aspiration to break even at the bottom line in 2024,” RBC Capital Markets analyst John Musk said in a research note.
Uniper shares have lost roughly 83% of their value since the start of the year.
Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@wsj.com
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