• AcidSmiley [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    This is actually more like a bailout than an expropriation. Uniper went brankrupt due to having contract obligations that were calculated with pre-war gas prices, but then having to meet these obligations with gas bought at post-war prices. Their bankruptcy was foreseeable for months. Now the government is simply buying up their stock to prevent the entire company from being liquidated.

    BTW expropriations under German law are a joke, basically nationalizing here means "buying the company at regular market price".

    • AssadCurse [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Then once the crisis is over, the company is bankrupt, the stocks are dirt cheap, the state will sell the stocks back to private investors for pennies. That is assuming the crisis ends and the company can become profitable again (big assumption).

      If the crisis does actually destroy the company then at least investors got out intact and handed off all the losses to the state

      • Farman [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That first paragraph used to happen in latin america a lot.