KPMG’s accountants certify the financial stability and solvency of Wien Energie. The positive survival forecast states that Wien Energie “has a future-proof, stable business model,” said Wien Energy boss Michael Strebl. The report went to the Federal Finance Agency on Friday, which granted the company a two billion euro credit line on behalf of the federal government.
Wien Energie, which supplies approximately two million customers with electricity, gas and district heating, unexpectedly had a financial need of several billion euros at the end of August. At that point, the company turned to the federal government for coverage. The money is to be used to secure exchange transactions with electricity and gas. The reason was a sudden enormous increase in electricity prices, while at the same time relatively low gas prices.
Two Billion Protective Shield Not Used
The company had to deposit large amounts of collateral – on the most extreme day that was 3.4 billion euros. Some of this collateral flowed back shortly afterwards as prices calmed down. The credit line of the federal government of two billion euros, which was granted after several days of public debate, has not yet been tapped.
In all realistic scenarios for the next two years, Wien Energie, with the credit line from the federal government, will use the 1.4 billion euros already granted by the city of Vienna and credit lines from the banks worth almost 1.3 billion (total 4.65 billion euros) ) sufficient security to meet all requirements, Strebl said Friday. Currently, approximately EUR 2.3 billion is used.
Extreme case: six billion euros needed
However, there is also an “extremely unlikely scenario” in which the price of electricity rises sharply and at the same time the price of gas falls sharply, leaving Wien Energie in a liquidity problem, according to Strebl. In such a case, six billion euros in liquidity could be needed. Therefore, Wien Energie asks the state to put up a protective shield. Such protective screens already exist in eight European countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.
Source: Krone
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