“Uniper withdraws its 2022 financial outlook amid Russian gas supply restrictions” – That’s the title of an action-free press release from a Berlin rating agency, called Scope Ratings, today: “This monitoring note does not constitute a credit rating action, nor does it indicate the likelihood that Scope will conduct a credit rating action in the short term. Information about the latest credit rating action connected with this monitoring note along with the associated rating history can be found on www.scoperatings.com.”

Scope had placed Uniper’s BBB+ rating under review for possible downgrade on March 14, 2022. However, five days after Uniper announced the most recent bad news, the rating agency still lacks the strength to decide on a downgrade. The uncertainty factors are well known to the rating agency: “The company [i.e. Uniper] is examining how to secure its liquidity, and it has entered into discussions with the German government on possible stabilisation measures.”