E.ON cuts stake in Nord Stream 1 by 700 million euros

Empty seats are seen before the annual meeting of German utility giant E.ON in Essen.

FRANKFURT Reuters -- E.ON, Europe's largest operator of energy networks, on Wednesday cut the value of its stake in the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline by around 700 million euros $715 million, citing uncertainty over Russia's war on Ukraine.

E.ON said in March that the 15.5% stake in the firm's pension fund has a book value of 1.2 billion euros, leading to a 58% decline of the participation's value.

Europe needs to change its energy system because of the current energy crisis. Chief Executive Leonhard Birnbaum said in a statement that the company's supply security was a priority.

The situation indicated no triggering events that would cause impairment charges on non-current assets, E.ON said in March of this year, and that it would negatively affect pension provisions and net debt, but not trigger liquidity issues.

The company also reported first-half results showing a 15% decline in the first-half adjusted core profit EBITDA to 4.06 billion euro, keeping its outlook for adjusted EBITDA of 7.6 billion to 7.8 billion euros in the year 2022.