(Bloomberg) -- A group of Gazprom PJSC companies temporarily under the control of the German government will not return to the ownership of the Russian gas giant, according to the group’s trading unit.

Gazprom views the separation as permanent and has already asked the companies to stop using its branding and trademarks, London-based Gazprom Marketing & Trading said in an email to employees seen by Bloomberg News. The companies still need to resolve the ownership structure and intend to keep talking to the German and U.K. governments about it, according to the email.

The German energy regulator seized control of Gazprom Germania GmbH -- which owns energy supplier Wingas GmbH and a gas storage firm -- to ensure security of supply. The company’s subsidiaries also include the trading arm in London, a U.K. retail supplier and businesses from Switzerland to Singapore.

“We do not envisage any scenario whereby we will return to being subsidiaries of Gazprom,” Wolfgang Skribot, chief executive officer of the London-based trading unit, said in the email. “In the longer-term, we do still need to resolve the issue of our ownership and this is a topic that we will continue to talk to the U.K. and German governments about.”

Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe had come under pressure as clients and business partners refused to do business with them in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That had raised the prospect some wouldn’t survive. Last week the German Federal Network Agency urged banks and trading partners to keep doing business with the company to avoid a market meltdown.

Since Germany took control of the companies earlier this month, some peers have gone back to doing business with Gazprom Marketing & Trading, while others are “in the process of digesting recent events,” according to the email.

“Some banks are still being difficult, cumbersome and slow for the simple reason that banks tend to be overcautious in their approach and are extremely diligent in their sanction screening process,” Skribot said. “But one by one we create a modus operandi, which hopefully will alleviate the current issues.”

New Ownership

Gazprom said earlier this month that it no longer owned its German unit and all its subsidiaries. The Russian firm didn’t disclose the new ownership, but regulatory filings showed the transaction involved Joint Stock Company Palmary. It isn’t clear who the ultimate beneficial owner of Palmary is.

Gazprom Marketing & Trading said rebranding is already underway and the first steps should be the removal of the Gazprom logo and name from all its communication channels, according to the email. That process should be followed by a change of name. The company also said that first conversations with Egbert Laege, the official appointed to run the German unit, have been “very productive.”

The company also said it’s preparing a retention package as competitors seek to tap its traders. Gazprom’s export arm has already offered jobs to the St. Petersburg-based employees of the European units, Skribot said in the email.

“We are expecting that some or all of the employees will accept those offers, so we are making contingency plans now to cover for any departures and to move roles back to the U.K. or Germany,” he said. “In any case, we view this as a further indication that our days being part of Gazprom are behind us.”

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