Centrica Share Discussion Threads

[grupo guitarlumber] 18/1/2021 18:53

18 January 2021

Centrica plc

('the Company')

Board Announcement

Centrica announces the appointment of a new Group Chief Financial Officer

Centrica plc announces that, for personal reasons, Johnathan Ford will step down today as Group Chief Financial Officer and from the Board and will leave Centrica on 31 January 2021.

Kate Ringrose is appointed Group Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect. Kate has been with Centrica for 16 years and has most recently been Group Financial Controller, having previously held a variety of roles across the energy, services and trading businesses. Kate will also join the Centrica plc Board as an Executive Director.

Chris O'Shea, Centrica Group Chief Executive, said:

"I am very sorry to see Johnathan leave and would like to thank him for his contribution to the Company and wish him and his family well for the future. However, I am delighted that we have a very capable internal successor in Kate, who brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of finance roles across Centrica. I look forward to working closely with Kate as we continue to focus on delivering the turnaround of Centrica".

Johnathan Ford, outgoing Group Chief Financial Officer, said:

"I am pleased to have been involved in the initial stages of the turnaround of Centrica and I am disappointed I will not be able to see it through to its conclusion. However, the Company has made fundamental progress over the past year and I wish Chris, Kate and the rest of the Centrica team well for the future."

Kate Ringrose, incoming Group Chief Financial Officer, said:

"I am honoured to have been appointed as Centrica Group Chief Financial Officer. While there remains a lot to achieve to complete the turnaround of the Company, I have seen first-hand that we have the people, capabilities and market positions to do so. I look forward to working with Chris, the Board and colleagues across the Group and playing my part in the turnaround of Centrica."

ENDS

[grupo] 18/1/2021 11:44

FOR THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO AWAIT WORD FROM CENTRICA

PERHAPS AS WE APPROACH

25-02-2021
Preliminary Financial Results



janekane
18 Jan '21 - 07:48 - 52 of 52
0 2 1
Any idea when dividend is going to be reinstalled

[janekane] 18/1/2021 07:48

Any idea when dividend is going to be reinstalled

[skinny] 18/1/2021 07:03

.

Centrica announces the appointment of a new Group Chief Financial Officer

Centrica plc announces that, for personal reasons, Johnathan Ford will step down today as Group Chief Financial Officer and from the Board and will leave Centrica on 31 January 2021.

Kate Ringrose is appointed Group Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect. Kate has been with Centrica for 16 years and has most recently been Group Financial Controller, having previously held a variety of roles across the energy, services and trading businesses. Kate will also join the Centrica plc Board as an Executive Director.

Chris O'Shea, Centrica Group Chief Executive, said:

"I am very sorry to see Johnathan leave and would like to thank him for his contribution to the Company and wish him and his family well for the future. However, I am delighted that we have a very capable internal successor in Kate, who brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of finance roles across Centrica. I look forward to working closely with Kate as we continue to focus on delivering the turnaround of Centrica".

Johnathan Ford, outgoing Group Chief Financial Officer, said:

"I am pleased to have been involved in the initial stages of the turnaround of Centrica and I am disappointed I will not be able to see it through to its conclusion. However, the Company has made fundamental progress over the past year and I wish Chris, Kate and the rest of the Centrica team well for the future."

Kate Ringrose, incoming Group Chief Financial Officer, said:

"I am honoured to have been appointed as Centrica Group Chief Financial Officer. While there remains a lot to achieve to complete the turnaround of the Company, I have seen first-hand that we have the people, capabilities and market positions to do so. I look forward to working with Chris, the Board and colleagues across the Group and playing my part in the turnaround of Centrica."

[jeannettetigger] 17/1/2021 15:19

Centrica share price now on the up, just need to sell spirit, the company needs to restructure or fall by the wayside.

[norma_stitts] 17/1/2021 13:04

Customer numbers broadly inline with the half year?

Erm, they bought about 125k customers from Robin Hood Energy so they’re clearly still haemorrhaging numbers. So that’s about another 2% loss of accounts in 6 months. Then there is the effects of the engineers strike due to the unscrupulous actions of the BOD.

[cleverinvester] 15/1/2021 13:44

Bought back in here today in the drop .Hope Aspers has cleared off.

[mercer95] 15/1/2021 09:22

Love my snooker, no grey area, the ball goes in or it doesn’t 👍

[gibbs1] 14/1/2021 22:25

Oliver Haill

08:27 Thu 14 Jan 2021


Centrica expects to beat earnings forecasts for 2020 but "remains cautious"

More people working from home mean business electricity demand saw a 15% negative impact in the second half, down from 30% in the second quarter
Centrica PLC -

Centrica PLC (LON:CAN), the owner of British Gas, said it expects full-year earnings per share to beat current market forecasts after trading proved “resilientR21; in the second half of the 2020.

The FTSE 250-listed energy provider said UK energy and services customer numbers were “broadly unchanged” over the period and while the effects of Covid-19 continued to hit its financial performance, it was not as bad as in the first half of the year.

Business electricity demand saw a 15% negative impact in the second half, compared to around 30% in the second quarter, while residential boiler installations recovered but were still roughly 15% lower year on year.

Having announced a significant restructuring plan in June, including cutting 5,000 jobs as it streamlines its number of business units, and then agreeing the sale of its US business in July, Centrica said this “remains on track”, with trading and optimisation performance “strong” and a continued focus on cash generation and expenditure.

Full year adjusted earnings per share from continuing and discontinued operations are expected to be ahead of the 4.8p per share average analyst forecast, while net debt will be down 10% year-on-year to £2.8bn, before including proceeds from the £2.7bn from the US sale that closed on January 5, 2021.

However, with the new lockdowns in the UK and Ireland, the board said it remains cautious about business energy demand, working capital outflow and bad debts, with a recent call for a strike by workers adding another potential spanner to the works.

Proactiveinvestors

[gibbs1] 14/1/2021 22:22

Oliver Haill

08:27 Thu 14 Jan 2021


Centrica expects to beat earnings forecasts for 2020 but "remains cautious"

More people working from home mean business electricity demand saw a 15% negative impact in the second half, down from 30% in the second quarter
Centrica PLC -

Centrica PLC (LON:CAN), the owner of British Gas, said it expects full-year earnings per share to beat current market forecasts after trading proved “resilientR21; in the second half of the 2020.

The FTSE 250-listed energy provider said UK energy and services customer numbers were “broadly unchanged” over the period and while the effects of Covid-19 continued to hit its financial performance, it was not as bad as in the first half of the year.

Business electricity demand saw a 15% negative impact in the second half, compared to around 30% in the second quarter, while residential boiler installations recovered but were still roughly 15% lower year on year.

Having announced a significant restructuring plan in June, including cutting 5,000 jobs as it streamlines its number of business units, and then agreeing the sale of its US business in July, Centrica said this “remains on track”, with trading and optimisation performance “strong” and a continued focus on cash generation and expenditure.

Full year adjusted earnings per share from continuing and discontinued operations are expected to be ahead of the 4.8p per share average analyst forecast, while net debt will be down 10% year-on-year to £2.8bn, before including proceeds from the £2.7bn from the US sale that closed on January 5, 2021.

However, with the new lockdowns in the UK and Ireland, the board said it remains cautious about business energy demand, working capital outflow and bad debts, with a recent call for a strike by workers adding another potential spanner to the works.

Proactiveinvestors

[grupo] 14/1/2021 18:33

14 January 2021

Centrica plc

Resilient financial performance in the second half of 2020

Centrica's operational and financial performance was resilient in the second half of 2020, as we maintained a tight focus on cash generation and expenditure against the backdrop of Covid-19. The significant restructure announced in June remains on track, and trading and optimisation performance continued to be strong, in particular in our LNG business. At the end of 2020 we had 6.9m UK energy supply customers and 3.6m UK services customers, both broadly unchanged since the half year.

Covid-19 continued to impact financial performance, although as expected the gross impact was lower in H2 2020 than in H1 2020. UK business electricity demand was negatively impacted by around 15% in H2 2020 compared to around 30% in Q2 2020. Residential boiler installations recovered in the second half compared to the first half but were still around 15% lower than in H2 2019. Cash collection trends across the Group were broadly in line with previous years.

However, we remain cautious as we head into 2021, with the return of tighter Covid-19 restrictions in the UK and Ireland expected to put continued pressure on business energy demand and limit services workload. In addition, the related uncertain economic backdrop increases the potential for additional working capital outflow and higher bad debts.

We currently expect to report 2020 full year adjusted earnings per share from continuing and discontinued operations(1) ahead of current market consensus(2) . 2020 closing Group net debt is expected to be approximately GBP2.8bn, a reduction of over 10% in the year. This is before including net proceeds of GBP2.7bn from the sale of Direct Energy (which closed on 5 January 2021), the bulk of which will be used to reduce net debt and make a contribution to the Group's defined benefit pension schemes.

The Company is due to release its 2020 Preliminary Results on 25 February 2021.

ENDS

[sicker] 14/1/2021 18:11

Mercer, I bought these for my sister in 2015 to provide her with divided income.
She has since past away so cna is an addition to my portfolio where they will remain in the hope of a return to former higher prices :-)
Hope you are enjoying the snooker on TV. (your profile)
Can't get near a table these days :-)

[mercer95] 14/1/2021 15:21

I’ve spent the last year feeling negative about the market sicker so yeah, I’m feeling upbeat about Centrica, at these levels is more a bet on the market in general,if they rise this will too regardless IMO

[justiceforthemany] 14/1/2021 12:55

EPS higher than expected.
P/E <10
Net debt will be virtually erased

[american idiot] 14/1/2021 11:22

Thanks ArgyleRich :-)

[argylerich] 14/1/2021 11:10

AI good deep reading :) There's a bit more here (pages 8 & 9)


"As set out in paragraph 6 of this Part I above, pending agreement on the amount of such
contribution to the Pension Schemes, Centrica has agreed that £250 million of the Net
Cash Proceeds will be placed into an escrow account secured in favour of the Pension
Schemes. Centrica has also agreed that up to £240 million of the Net Cash Proceeds
will be used to make payments to the Pension Schemes which Centrica would have to
make as a result of redundancies which take place between 1 July 2019 and 30 June
2021 (in respect of which a deferral agreement is currently in place).
The Board remains committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet and liquidity position
with no material covenants on any of the Group’s existing debt. In addition, the Board
intends to ensure that Centrica has a level of net debt commensurate with the cash flow
generation of the Group and with maintaining corporate investment grade credit ratings,
9
which will allow Centrica to efficiently procure energy and secure collateral lines to
support its core businesses, as well as providing access to cost effective, short term
sources of liquidity.
Centrica expects that the Net Cash Proceeds applied to reduce net debt will initially be
held as cash on Centrica’s balance sheet. However, Centrica intends to carry out a
liability management exercise post-Completion, which may allow Centrica to reduce its
interest charge by opportunistically retiring gross-debt in a value accretive manner.
The strengthened balance sheet resulting from the reductions in net debt and the
contribution to the Pension Schemes, and the cash flows generated by the Retained
Group are expected to result in an attractive proposition for Centrica’s stakeholders, with
the potential for growth in earnings and operating cash flows. The Board also recognises
the importance of dividends to Shareholders, and intends to recommence dividends when
it is prudent to do so."

With the stock market bouncing like a tennis ball over the last 12 months who knows where the deficit figure is going to be!

[american idiot] 14/1/2021 10:26

ArgyleRich,

£522m at the last count (on the balance sheet) however there is a revaluation due in 2021...that is obviously not reflected at present.

Section 6 & 7.



The next triennial review is scheduled for 31 March 2021. On a pure rollforward basis from 31 March 2018, using the same methodology and consequent
assumptions, the technical provisions deficit would be approximately £2.4 billion as at 30 June 2020

I'm sure I read that Centrica will put £1b in the pension scheme funds in total.

[careful] 14/1/2021 10:23

There could be hope here after all.

Home charging for electric cars could be developed and I know they are looking into that in a big way.

But too much talk about what will happen years down the line does not help for the immediate future.

With a market cap of under £3bn, modest debt and a very modest pension fund deficit, Centrica, with its solid core customer base could at last become an attractive target for a giant oil company wishing to diversify.

[argylerich] 14/1/2021 10:03

It will be interesting to see how much goes into the pension schemes. Can't see them putting in more than needed as there would be no financial gain from doing so as opposed to paying down all non-penalty debt.
The Pension deficit was £522m at the last count.

[skinny] 14/1/2021 09:49

51.84p - highest since July 24th last year.

[american idiot] 14/1/2021 09:34

Careful,

Think Centrica are going to contribute £1b into their pension fund schemes with the rest of the direct energy proceeds reducing net debt.

This will mean less annual pension contributions and less interest to service net debt v lost profits from direct energy.

We also have Spirit Energy to divest :-)

Mixed bag today, a few good positives (lower net debt, EPS ahead of market consensus, no loss of UK customers in H2) V cautious outlook for 2021.

[careful] 14/1/2021 08:56

after Direct energy sales proceeds net debt could be close to zero.
a healthy starting position going forward, presents opportunities.

[wendsworth] 14/1/2021 08:44

undervalueassets : A succinct assessment with which I , and I suspect the market too , will agree. Steady progress .