Fortum faces €200m hit from Russian renewables

Finnish developer Fortum is due to record a roughly €200 million hit from its renewables operations in Russia in the first three months of 2022, it has announced. Through its joint ventures, Fortum is the biggest wind power developer in Russia.

The write-down is part of first quarter pre-tax impairments worth around €2.1 billion related to Fortum and its German business unit Uniper’s Russian operations.

This total includes approximately €300 million in impairments related to fixed assets and intangible assets and around €600 million for fixed assets from Uniper’s Russian subsidiary Unipro.

The Finnish energy company had already announced a roughly €1 billion hit related to Uniper’s outstanding receivable for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The project was due to carry Russian gas to Germany – but German chancellor Olaf Scholz has said the pipeline would be blocked in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Fortum had also announced that it would not make any new investments in Russia following the outbreak of war.

Fortum is one of several companies involved in the wind power industry counting the financial damage of their involvement in Russia. Earlier this week, turbine maker Vestas cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in announcing first quarter impairments.

Fortum is due to publish its Q1 results in full on 12 May.

The Finnish company has stakes in 1.2GW of operational wind capacity in Russia, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly. It had secured a further 1.6GW in a tender in September 2021 through its joint venture with Russian nanotechnology firm Rusnano.

In total, Russia has just over 2GW of operational wind power capacity, according to Windpower Intelligence.