(Bloomberg) — Jutta Doenges, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who also ran Germany’s debt management agency, will take over as chief financial officer of recently nationalized utility Uniper SE.
(Bloomberg) — Jutta Doenges, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who also ran Germany’s debt management agency, will take over as chief financial officer of recently nationalized utility Uniper SE.
Doenges will take over on March 1, and replace Tiina Tuomela, whose contract expires, the company said in a statement, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.
The Dusseldorf-based company suffered massive losses after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a surge in gas prices, and is in the midst of a management shakeup following a government takeover. Both its chief executive officer and chief operating officer said this month they were stepping down.
Doenges said her goal was to lead Uniper through a stabilization phase and eventually to “successfully reopen it to capital markets.”
Doenges was a joint head of the Federal Finance Agency until October. She helped engineer government bailouts for tour operator TUI AG and airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which were left on the verge of bankruptcy after tourism slumped during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 49-year-old began her career at Goldman and later worked for the German subsidiary of Sweden’s SEB AB. She sits on the supervisory board of both TUI and Commerzbank AG, in which the German government has held a 15.6% stake since it rescued the lender during the financial crisis.
She was appointed to the Commerzbank role by then-finance minister and now German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The German government decides the makeup of Uniper’s executive board because it took over of the company at the end of last year as Russia’s war in Ukraine upended energy markets.
Uniper imported most of its gas from Russia and was facing bankruptcy. The utility reported a net loss of around €40 billion ($43 billion) in the first nine months of the year, including costs for replacing gas in the more expensive wholesale markets and anticipated future losses.
The nationalization is part of a €200 billion package Scholz’s ruling coalition put together to help companies and households cope with energy crisis. Uniper supplies gas to thousands of local German utilities and companies and its nationalization was needed to avert a collapse of the country’s energy system.
–With assistance from Petra Sorge.
(Her goal is to reopen struggling gas giant to the capital markets)
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