BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The European Commission has demanded that German gas importer Uniper divest its Dutch business to obtain regulatory approval for a rescue deal, German daily Handelsblatt reported, citing several people familiar with the matter.
The European Commission has set itself a Dec. 16 deadline to decide on whether to approve Germany’s bailout of Uniper, its biggest gas trader which nearly collapsed after Russia stopped the supply of the fuel, under merger control rules.
Uniper’s activities in the Netherlands mainly consist of its Maasvlakte MPP 3 hard coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 1.07 gigawatt (GW). It also has several smaller gas-fired plants there with a combined capacity of 534 megawatts (MW).
Uniper’s shareholders are scheduled to vote on the bailout, Germany’s biggest ever, at an extraordinary shareholder meeting on Dec. 19.
Uniper and Germany’s Economy Ministry both declined to comment. The European Commission had no immediate comment.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Christoph Steitz and Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Thomas Escritt and Paul Carrel)
