Britain’s Centrica restores dividend as profits soar

10 comments
  1. > Britain’s largest energy supplier Centrica (CNA.L) on Thursday reported a huge increase in first-half profit, boosted by asset sales and soaring energy prices, enabling it to restore its dividend.

    > The British Gas owner paused dividends in 2020 and began major cost cutting, selling upstream assets and seeking to reinvent itself as an energy service provider.

    > “We’ve made significant progress de-risking the Group and building a stronger business for the benefit of all stakeholders,” CEO Chris O’Shea said in a statement.

    > The rise in profits comes as wholesale gas prices have hit record highs across Europe this year, following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, in turn pushing up energy prices for consumers.

    > A British price cap on the most widely used domestic energy contracts is expected to rise by at least 64% in October, having already increased 54% in April, contributing to rising inflation and a cost of living squeeze.

    > Centrica’s adjusted operating profit for the first six months of 2022 rose to 1.34 billion pounds, up from 262 million a year earlier.

  2. Absolutely disgusting, we are paying through the nose for energy and the toothless, gutless useless alleged regulator Ofgem does nothing and just allows them to profiteer from us. Jesus.

  3. Fixed the statement into what he means.

    “We’ve made significant progress squeezing the last penny of our customers for the Group and building a stronger business for the benefit of all sHaReholders since they want money if I give it to them they give me more money so couldn’t care less about you fools not be able to pay your gas bills. ” CEO Chris O’Shea said in a statement.

  4. Lol, complete insanity, they are absolutely raking it in while hard working people are struggling.

    Bizzaro world.

  5. For those who say we cannot control limit the prices on what we pay to a level where it’s affordable, you’re talking shite, especially when you say “No one will sell us energy”

    EDF is owned by the French government and limits profits

    Nationalise the industry

  6. This is Centrica, not BG, almost all of this profit came from the upstream business I.e. sale of natural gas as a commodity.

    The retail energy business, the bit that sells you gas, is loss making.

    Which makes sense, because the commodity cost of gas is through the roof because of shortages caused by Ukraine and the resulting supply disruption.

    In short, before anyone says it, this doesn’t mean you are being ripped off by British Gas. And nationalisation wouldn’t fix it unless you have a plan to magic more gas into the world somewhere.

    As an additional point, this is how the market mechanism works…..

    There is a supply shock, prices rise forcing people to prioritise energy usage to balance supply and demand in the short term. Over time the higher price encourages people to invest in developing more supply (drilling, exploration, pipelines renewables etc.) so that it rises to meet demand and prices come down. **This is how its meant to work in commodity markets.** And it does work, fantasticly well.

    One of the whole points of governments is the protect people from extreme price whiplashes in the short term while that mechanism works through the system. We just happen to have a government who believes that the state should never do anything. Which is not the energy companies fault.

  7. Who needs Putin when we have corporate executives closer to home throughout the energy sector happy to shaft the British consumer on a regular basis?

  8. But all the economists on reddit keep telling me that British Gas are just the middleman and they’re losing money by putting my bill up £1000 a year…

  9. Glad someone’s doing okay during this crisis.

    If you’re personally struggling, then maybe get a job in industries where this money might get spent: swimming pool installer, fine wine retailer, high class escort, luxury car salesman, high end tailoring. Trickle-down, its the foundation of modern western economic thought.

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