According to insiders, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky could set his sights on the nationalized Düsseldorf-based energy company Uniper after Thyssenkrupp.

Kretinsky is one of the investors that the German Finance Ministry has approached about Uniper, several people familiar with the matter said. Energy holding EPH, which is majority-owned by Kretinsky's investment arm EPCG, is involved in the process, an insider said.

EPH and Uniper declined to comment. The Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for the group, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Kretinsky only acquired a 20 percent stake in the steel division of Thyssenkrupp last year. Negotiations for the acquisition of a further 30 percent package have so far been unsuccessful. In Germany, Kretinsky still has a stake in the Metro retail group, among other things.

Just a few days ago, Reuters reported that the German government, which owns almost all of Uniper's shares, is considering a complete sale. Insiders said that the government is considering the Canadian asset manager Brookfield, among others, for the 99.12 percent package. In addition, the Norwegian energy company Equinor and Taqa from Abu Dhabi have been approached. According to insiders, every deal is likely to be scrutinized because of Uniper's importance for energy supply in Germany.

The government views the energy sector as critical infrastructure. Takeover attempts by bidders outside the EU can be critically examined and even blocked. Uniper is the largest operator of gas storage facilities in Germany and supplies around 200 terawatt hours of gas to around 1,000 customers, including industrial companies and municipal utilities, every year. This corresponds to about a quarter of Germany's total gas consumption last year. In addition, the company operates 2.55 gigawatts of power plant capacity, which is almost a quarter of the so-called system-relevant capacity in Germany. This capacity must be available at all times to ensure a secure energy supply.

The federal government had nationalized Germany's largest gas company during the 2022 energy crisis. Uniper was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the Russian gas giant Gazprom's initial partial and ultimately complete halt of gas deliveries. The state then put together a stabilization package, of which Uniper took advantage of 13.5 billion euros. Meanwhile, the Düsseldorf-based company is once again making billions in profits. The EU Commission had made the takeover conditional, among other things, on the state reducing its stake to a maximum of 25 percent plus one share by 2028 at the latest. In addition, Uniper must sell a number of assets by the end of 2026, including the controversial Datteln 4 hard coal-fired power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.

(Report by Christoph Steitz, Emma-Victoria Farr and Jan Lopatka. Edited by Tom Käckenhoff, with editorial assistance from Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for business and markets).)