German energy giant Uniper gets $11 billion to pay margin calls

Uniper got additional loans totaling $11.3 billion from its Finnish parent Fortum Oyj and KfW IPEX-Bank

German energy giant Uniper SE was forced to borrow billions to pay down margin calls -- the collateral that exchanges require to back up trades -- as European gas and electricity prices rallied.

Uniper got additional loans totaling 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion) from its Finnish parent Fortum Oyj and KfW IPEX-Bank, the company said in a statement after the close of trading on Tuesday. The borrowing facilities correspond to about two-thirds of the company’s market value of just over 15 billion euros.

With gas and power prices repeatedly rising to records since July, many companies that had fixed energy