Tuppurainen argued to STT on Sunday that Fortum showed its commitment to helping the subsidiary deal with the natural gas crisis by providing an eight billion-euro credit facility, consisting of shareholder loan and parent-company guarantees.
As the majority owner of Fortum, she said, "We don't see how it would be possible for Fortum to further capitalise Uniper in these circumstances."
Uniper, the largest buyer of Russian gas in Germany and the largest importer of natural gas in Europe, is in financial distress due to restrictions on natural gas exports by Russia. The company has received only 40 percent of its contracted volumes of natural gas from Russia since June, forcing it to source replacement volumes at substantially higher prices.
Helsingin Sanomat said the company has suffered daily losses of up to 50 million euros from its natural gas business.
Since the beginning of the year, the shares of Uniper have lost 75 per cent of their value. Fortum owns 78 per cent of Uniper shares.
Tuppurainen reminded that the difficulties are a result of the war waged in Ukraine by Russia and the market manipulation by Gazprom, a natural gas company controlled by the Kremlin.
This fundamental reason for high gas prices isn't going anywhere in the near future, so this problem can't be solved with a short-term capitalisation solution, as far as the main owner is concerned, she said. Fortum has already spent a lot of money to support Uniper. It is a very large sum relative to Finland's gross domestic product. Currently, Fortum and Uniper are discussing a bailout package that could be worth nine billion euros with the German government.