The Finnish energy company Fortum announced on Monday to subscribe to the first tranche of an aid loan of about 2.3 billion euros from the Finnish state, in order to “remain prepared for further turbulence” in the electricity market.
Fortum, the main shareholder of the German gas giant Uniper, which is in the process of being nationalized by Berlin, had to activate this first loan of 350 million euros in order to continue to benefit from the public credit line in the future.
These sums are intended to enable it to pay the increasingly high collateral required by stock market operators such as Nasdaq to participate in the electricity market, due to the very high prices of recent months.
“For the time being, Fortum has sufficient liquidity to meet the current guarantee conditions,” the Finnish group says, pointing out that electricity prices have declined in recent weeks on the Nordic markets.
“However, Fortum must remain prepared for further market turbulence, and using the first tranche in September ensures access to the credit facility should collateral requirements rise again during the winter,” the company says.
As part of the loan announced by Helsinki in early September, the Finnish state will slightly increase its share in Fortum, via an issue of new shares without payment.
As a result of the transaction, the Finnish government’s share in Fortum will increase from 50.76% to 51.26%, the group said in its statement.
