April 20 (Reuters) – Germany will begin privatization of the Gazprom unit seized by Berlin post Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, its chief executive told the Financial Times in an interview published Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n The division, called Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), also intends to raise 1.5 billion euros- 2 billion euros($1.76 billion- $2.35 billion) through a capital increase to finance the expansion of its infrastructure assets business, the FT said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n SEFE, previously Gazprom Germania, was nationalized by Berlin in 2022 after the group’s former Russian parent ditched the division, which is a vital part of Germany’s gas supply. The firm operates 4,200 kilometres (2,610 miles), or 10%, of Germany’s gas network system. <\/p>\n
\n European Union rules require the German state to cut its stake to no more than 25% plus one share by 2028.<\/p>\n
\n CEO Egbert Laege told the FT that the Iran war had lent momentum to privatization plans, with constrained Middle East gas flows highlighting the importance of reliable suppliers.<\/p>\n
\n Germany plans to dilute its SEFE holding after the initial capital increase, potentially via another sell-off, an initial public offering or other options, Laege added.<\/p>\n
\n “Given the short time in which we’re operating, maybe the IPO is a bit difficult for us but in the end this is up to the markets and it’s a decision for the government,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n ($1 = 0.8506 euros)<\/p>\n
\n (Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar and Mrigank Dhaniwala)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 20 (Reuters) – Germany will begin privatization of the Gazprom unit seized by Berlin post Russia’s 2022…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,548],"class_list":{"0":"post-5861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-germany","9":"tag-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}