Centrica Slashes Dividend, Exits Oil and Gas as CEO Steps Down
July 30 2019 - 1:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Adria Calatayud
British Gas owner Centrica PLC (CNA.LN) said Tuesday that Chief
Executive Iain Conn plans to step down next year, as it announced
plans to slash its 2019 dividend by 58% and exit oil and gas
production.
The FTSE 100-listed utilities company said these actions will
complete its transformation into a cost-competitive,
customer-facing business. Mr. Conn will remain with the company at
least until next year's annual general meeting, Centrica said.
Centrica reported a swing to a pretax loss of 569 million pounds
($704.3 million) for the first half compared with a profit of
GBP415 million in the year-earlier period. The company attributed
the loss to lower adjusted earnings and remeasurements due to
falling gas prices. Centrica posted a net loss of GBP550 million
compared with a profit of GBP238 million a year before.
Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders fell by 63% to
GBP134 million, the company said.
Revenue fell to GBP11.57 billion in the first half from GBP12.10
billion a year before, the company said.
Centrica declared an interim dividend of 1.50 pence a share,
down from 3.60 pence a share in the first half of 2018. For the
full year, the company intends to pay a full-year dividend of 5.0
pence a share compared with 12.0 pence a year earlier.
Centrica backed its full-year guidance and said adjusted
earnings will be weighted toward the second half of the year.
Write to Adria Calatayud at
adria.calatayudvaello@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 30, 2019 02:44 ET (06:44 GMT)
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