Surging profits at British Gas help owner Centrica report bumper profits

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, issued a “strong 2023 financial result” today, as the company’s retail division saw a sharp jump in profits for the year.

In the company’s annual results, it revealed operating profit for 2023 came in at £2.8bn, down on 2022’s figure of £3.3bn.

British Gas Energy saw profits skyrocket from £72m to £751m, slightly exceeding analyst expectations of £747m.

This offset a decline in profit from the group’s other businesses, namely Centrica Energy, which deals in energy trading and asset management, where profits almost halved from £1.4bn in 2022 to £774m.

Profits at Centrica’s nuclear arm dipped, falling from £724m to £536m.

Off the back of these figures, the company announced proposed a 2.7p per share final dividend for a full-year payout of 4p per share, up 33 per cent year-on-year. It has also outlined plans to repurchase £1bn of shares in a programme which will run until July 2024.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica’s group chief executive, said that “this strong underlying operational performance has continued into early 2024.”

“As you would expect, sharply lower commodity prices and reduced volatility will naturally lower earnings in comparison to 2023 as we return to a more normalised environment,” he added.

“Our performance over the past year has reinforced our confidence in delivering against our medium-term sustainable profit ambitions and continuing to create value for shareholders.”

Last week, energy giant Octopus Energy, the second largest household supplier in the UK, reported that it had turned its first profit since its 2015 launch.

The group’s share price is up 4.9 per cent this morning.