Former Gazprom unit Germania may need more money from the German state, reports Der Spiegel

BERLIN, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Gazprom Germania, the energy business abandoned by Russian Gazprom (GAZP.MM) in April, may require a further infusion of funds beyond a 10 billion euro ($10.06 billion) loan already provided by German state-owned investment bank KfW, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

Germany’s energy regulator said in April it would administer the company, a trading, storage and transmission business, in the interests of Germany and Europe. Read more

Since then, the KfW loan has not only been intended to secure the group’s liquidity – now marketed as SEFE Securing Energy for Europe – but also to allow it to replace the defaulting Russian gas by buying it on the market.

However, government-appointed SEFE administrator Egbert Laege told news magazine Der Spiegel that gas purchase prices are “significantly higher today than we had set in our initial calculation”.

Securing the gas supply will therefore “probably cost more than we thought. So we have to see if there is enough money or not”, he added.

Laege was confident that the government would provide additional credit if needed. “Because the federal government wanted to stabilize the SEFE in the long term with its credit, I think if more money was needed, it would also be made available,” he said.

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Written by Paul Carrel; Editing by Jan Harvey

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