Just hot air

1 June 2017 By Olaf Storbeck

Shares in Uniper jumped on a report that Finland’s Fortum is considering buying E.ON’s 47 pct stake in the 6.3 bln euro power group. Yet Uniper’s big carbon footprint would tarnish the Finns’ clean energy strategy, and its lackluster earnings make the financial logic a stretch.

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Finish utility Fortum is in talks with German energy group E.ON about buying its 46.7 percent stake in Uniper, Bloomberg reported on May 31. Uniper, E.ON and Fortum declined to comment on the report.

Sources had previously told Reuters that E.ON had hired Goldman Sachs to explore options for a sale of its remaining stake in Uniper, the power plant and trading business it spun off last year.

Uniper, which has a market capitalisation of 6.3 billion euros, was spun out of E.ON in 2016. It operates hydroelectric, coal- and gas-fired power plants and holds stakes in gas pipelines, LNG terminals and nuclear plants across Europe.

Shares in Uniper were up 3.9 percent to 18.04 euros by 0849 BST on June 1. Fortum shares gained 1.7 percent to 14.42 euros.

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