Uniper employees slam idea of ​​company split – Rheinische Post

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FRANKFURT, Jan 27 (Reuters) – An employee representative of German gas trader Uniper (UN01.DE) has slammed a working paper suggesting the company be dissolved, a German newspaper reported on Friday.

Uniper is Germany’s largest gas trader and was ordered to sell assets last year in return for European Union antitrust approval of a government bailout after Russia cut off supplies, making it the biggest corporate bailout in German history.

But a working paper written by the Boston Consulting Group for the German government explored a possible breakup of the company, which created unease among employees, the Rheinische Post newspaper reported.

“Uniper must be preserved as a whole group, this is the only way to also guarantee Germany’s energy supply,” Harald Seegatz, head of the Uniper workers’ council, told the newspaper.

He said employees had taken the politicians’ word that Uniper would continue to exist, barring the divestments demanded by the EU.

A Uniper spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, but told the Rheinische Post that the BCG document was only a “discussion document” and that “to our knowledge, there is currently no decision … on structural measures”.

One of the options discussed in the BCG article, which Rheinische Post said it saw, was a “timely and value-maximizing divestment” of its sound constituents, in particular Uniper’s electricity business.

Another option was a merger between Uniper and Sefe, the German gas importer which was previously a division of Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and placed under German supervision.

Sefe and BCG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reporting by Tom Sims and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Josie Kao

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