EU accepts Uniper can't sell Russian unit in bailout deal, CEO says

Fortum Oyj

28/01/2026 07:28

By Christoph Steitz

BERLIN, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The European Union has acknowledged that Uniper UN0k.DE can't meet one of the key conditions for approving a 13.5 billion euro ($16.2 billion) bailout, the German utility's CEO said, adding its Russian division Unipro was currently unsellable.

Uniper had to be rescued by Berlin in 2022 in the wake of Europe's energy crisis and Brussels set a number of conditions to approve the bailout, including the disposal of ten assets by end-2026, nine of which have been divested or are being sold.

Russia's Unipro UPRO.MM, in which Uniper holds an 83.7% stake currently valued at 106.5 billion roubles ($1.4 billion), remains on the list but has been put under administration by Moscow, effectively stripping its owner of any control.

"Brussels understands that Unipro is in a different category from all of the other assets on the list," the group's CEO Michael Lewis told Reuters at the Handelsblatt energy summit. "Brussels understands that we don't have control over it and we can't sell it."

Lewis said any proceeds from a potential Unipro sale down the line would be an upside since it was written off, adding he expected the division to remain under Russian control for now.

($1 = 0.8338 euros)

($1 = 76.2455 roubles)

 (Reporting by Christoph Steitz
Editing by Ludwig Burger)

 ((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 647))