Bahn apparently wants to be the first large company to use the electricity price brake

According to company circles, Deutsche Bahn will be the first large company to take advantage of the electricity price brake. The board of directors decided that after a long review, several company representatives told the Reuters news agency on Friday. The heavily indebted railway is the largest electricity consumer in Germany and is therefore particularly suffering from the increased prices.

Bahn boss Richard Lutz spoke in November of up to two billion euros in additional costs for electricity alone. However, the electricity price brake is subject to conditions: the group must report a drop in profits or losses. In addition, a company is then not allowed to pay out manager bonuses and dividends, which has deterred many listed companies. This is now affecting the railway managers as well. A railway spokeswoman declined to comment.

The fact that the bonus lock could already affect payments for 2022, although the price brake will only take effect from January 2023, caused particular concern, said group representatives. There are different legal opinions here. The railway wanted to put payments on hold for the time being, said group representatives. The traffic light coalition had stipulated that companies that benefit from the electricity price brake may not pay out bonuses and dividends from a relief amount of 50 million euros.

Deutsche Bahn has been planning to reform the remuneration system for some time. Bonuses are to be reduced and regular salaries are to be increased in return. The supervisory board of the group wants to deal with this in the next week. Although it is a state-owned company, the railways had to pay dividends in the past, which went to the federal government. This in turn invested them back into the rail network. However, since the company is unlikely to have made a profit again in 2022, the dividend could be canceled anyway.