Wien Energie made substantial profits last year. At the same time, the company needed billions in support from the city to continue trading on the stock market. How does that work? The opposition of the town hall rages and demands the resignation of the ‘red managers’. The energy supplier defends itself.
The Viennese are groaning under high electricity and gas prices, and now this. As the “Profile” revealed, Wien Energie posted solid quarterly profits in the crisis year 2022. Approximately 115 million euros (profit before tax) in the first half of the year. According to the report, profit had even risen to 226 million euros at the end of the third quarter. That was much more than planned and considerably more than in the whole of 2021 (profit before tax: 147 million euros).
Perhaps the nice result was one of the reasons why the company threw a lavish Christmas party for hundreds of thousands of euros in early December – we reported. At the same time, the energy supplier announced that it was in distress.
1.4 billion per emergency power of the city government
Mayor Michael Ludwig released 1.4 billion euros per emergency so that Wien Energie could continue to do business on the stock exchanges. Whether the city council acted correctly is currently the subject of a committee of inquiry.
What did the company need financial help for? as a credit line. Wien Energie buys gas on international energy exchanges and sells the self-generated electricity there. To secure these forward transactions (volumes are traded at pre-agreed prices), the trading partners must deposit collateral. The 1.4 billion was used for this.
Despite violent price fluctuations on the stock markets, everything went well. The money has been refunded. The musty aftertaste remains. ÖVP and FPÖ are now demanding resignations: “Red managers fire electricity customers, but carry out high-risk speculative transactions to maximize profits,” said blue club president Maximilian Krauss.
Turquoise club boss Markus Wölbitsch railed: “Although there were clear warning signs, the SPÖ persisted in these open-risk speculative transactions.”
That says Wien Energie
Wien Energie counters the allegations: “There is no direct relationship between income and liquidity. The interpretations are not allowed. These MA 5 quoted and internal quarterly reports also do not present a big picture. For example, they do not show figures for the sales subsidiary Wien Energie Vertriebs GmbH & Co KG, which is responsible for customer affairs,” says a company spokeswoman.
Individual figures have been taken out of context and rendered in abbreviated form. And: “We do not comment further on these internal and confidential reports for precisely these reasons. Naturally, we will publish the annual balance sheet for 2022 accordingly.”
In addition, Wien Energie emphasizes that it makes good offers to its customers. In summer/autumn he was the cheapest provider in all of Vienna.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
