British Gas owner sees profits soar due to price cap boost
British Gas owner Centrica has revealed that earnings at its retail supplier business soared by nearly 900% as it was handed a price cap boost of around £500 million.
The energy giant said underlying earnings at its gas and electricity supply arm leaped 889% to £969 million in the six months to June 30 from £98 million a year earlier.
It said the result was buoyed as Ofgem’s price cap in the first half of the year – when customers saw their bills limited to £2,500 a year under the Energy Price Guarantee – allowed it to recoup losses seen a year earlier – to the tune of about £500 million.
Overall, Centrica swung to a £6.5 billion operating profit in the first six months of the year against operating losses of £1.1 billion a year earlier.
On an underlying basis, operating profits rose to £2.1 billion from £1.3 billion a year ago.
Last year Centrica more than tripled its adjusted operating profit, which reached £3.3 billion in 2022 amid turbulence in global energy markets.
Big swings in energy prices helped the company’s energy marketing and trading division, which made £1.4 billion in profit during the year, an enormous 1,900% increase from the year before.
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Billions they made, whilst telling uus that they had no choice put to put prices up. BILLIONS….and this is why they spend so much money on the propaganda AGAINST renewable energy, because THEY, the rich people, the friends of Kier Starmer, Boris Johnson and the newspaper owners, they get to set the price and then their friends/puppets in Westminster protect them. WE ARE BEING FORCED INTO POVERTY SO THEY CAN CONTINUE THE RAPE OF THE EARTH AND PROFIT FROM IT. YOUR MONEY that you slaved and worked and broke yourself for is THEIR PROFIT. Whilst YOU were worrying about your… Read more »
Typical profiteering from fear of being cold or hungry or homeless. I’ve made my point on the other article on cost of living and they link closely to this matter.
This is further proof that Ofgem don’t have a clue what they’re doing and something needs to be done about this “watchdog” immediately. They either don’t understand what they’re doing or they’re blatantly on the side of huge corporates making huge profits while people in this country are being exploited shamelessly. Let’s not forget the litany of mismanagement in the energy sector they’ve allowed to happen; They’ve allowed force fitting of pre-payment metres to vulnerable households during a time of unprecedented price rises while allowing these metred supplies to be the most expensive in the country. They’re long awaited solution… Read more »
we must remember the all the regulatory bodies are there first and foremost to protect the industry they are responsible “for”.There is a revolving door between them and those the supposedly regulate and they ar well entrenched in the establishment.
Anfoesol. Hen genedlaeth wyrgam a throfaus.
It’s primarily greed that has got us to the financial situation we are in today. Blatant profiteering that in turn has fueled inflation and then interest rate hikes. It how the UK operates at the moment and what we will see is inequality grow at an ever faster pace. The case for independence is growing daily.