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Centrica PLC on Thursday reported a strong first half as it swung to a profit and saw revenue jump. The Windsor, England-based owner of British Gas said it swung to a pretax profit of £6.42 billion from a pretax loss of £1.18 billion a year prior. This was partly driven by a 44% reduction in the cost of sales to £5.10 billion. Net finance costs also fell by 54% to £36 million. Revenue soared by 60% to £16.52 billion from £10.32 billion the year before. This includes a £3.7 million contribution from the government relating to the Energy Price Guarantee, and a further £449 million from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Another £319 million came from contracts with customers, while £130 million related to non-domestic British Gas customers. Centrica declared an interim dividend of 1.33 pence per share, up 33% from 1.0p per share the year before. Looking ahead, the company said it expects growth to slow in the second half of 2023. Centrica added it expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to be heavily weighted towards the first half of the year, in line with market expectations of between 16.5p to 24.7p. Chief Executive Officer Chris O’Shea said: ‘Today’s results allow us to increase our customer support package to more than £100 million, and the new green investment strategy we’ve announced will see us invest several billion pounds in the energy transition, creating thousands of new well-paid jobs. ‘Our robust balance sheet has allowed us to invest heavily in the UK and Ireland’s energy security and will make sure that our customers have cleaner energy at the right price.’ Shares in Centrica were up 5.3% at 130.62 pence each in London on Thursday morning. Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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