Energy Taqa among suitors for Germany’s $10bn Uniper By Neil Halligan January 15, 2025, 3:31 PM Alamy Uniper, which operates in more than 40 countries, is 99% owned by the German government Up to 99% stake for sale Norway’s Equinor among rivals ‘Re-IPO’ also possible The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) is interested in buying a stake in Germany’s government-owned power company, Uniper, media reports say. Uniper, which operates in more than 40 countries and has 34GW of generating capacity, was nationalised in 2022 during Europe’s energy crisis. The company needed a bailout when its former main gas supplier, Russia’s Gazprom, stopped deliveries after the outbreak of the Ukraine war. The German government has been working with advisers to sound out potential buyers to sell part or all of its 99 percent holding in the multibillion-dollar energy utility. Several potential bidders have expressed early interest in Uniper, including the UAE energy company Taqa, Bloomberg reported. Taqa first-half profit falls despite rising revenues Taqa to sell entire stake in Kurdistan oilfield Adnoc strikes LNG supply deal with Germany Norway’s state-owned oil and gas giant, Equinor, is also said to be interested, the news outlet said, adding that any transaction could value Uniper at €10 billion ($10.3 billion). Brookfield, the investment group run by the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, is another potential bidder, Reuters reported. The German government is also considering a listing of a stake in Uniper on the stock market, a so-called “re-IPO”, Bloomberg said. As part of the bailout agreement two years ago, in which the European Commission approved a $36.6 billion plan to recapitalise Uniper, Germany agreed to reduce its shareholding to not more than 25 percent plus one share by the end of 2028. Taqa was in talks last summer with the Spanish holding firm Criteria over a potential joint takeover bid for the Spanish gas company Naturgy, valued at around $26 billion. However, discussions ended without agreement. In 2023, Taqa said it had earmarked AED75 billion ($20 billion) for investment in power and water capacity expansion and UAE-based transmission and distribution networks by 2030.