british gas owner centrica in alert on profit despite price rises - residential energy storage
Centrica, owner of British Gas, warned today that although it hit 15 million customers at a price of £ 9, profits will be lower than expected this year.
Bill is up 2% next week.
The UK's largest energy supplier says part of its business is facing "challenges", including electricity generation in the UK, commercial energy supply sectors in the US and the UK, and natural gas storage, adjusted earnings per share this year will be flat with 2012.
The FTSE 100 Index (FTSE 4%) the company had led the city is expected to this year will in a modest growth analyst is expected to income will growth.
Today's downgrade led to a drop of nearly 4%, or 13. 2p, to 350. 7p.
But Centrica did Post 1. 4 billion post-
Last year's tax revenue, utilities added that this year's annual profit was "affected by weather variables ".
Forecasters predict that Britain will encounter "Arctic ice" this winter ".
In the long cold weather, the amount of gas used by British Gas families in the first 10 months of 2013 increased by 4%.
Centrica claimed that after the price increase, it did not see a large number of households leaving the UK gas market, calling the number of residential energy customers 15.
7 million at the end of October, "there has been basically no change since half a year ". But many would-
Be switchers have been waiting until the six Giants announced the price increase.
The energy giant admits it is facing an "unprecedented era" where public debate over rising bills conflicts with rising green costs.
Last week, Centrica's chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, said he decided not to receive this year's bonus because of public anger at the surge in bills.
But critics criticized the company for its unclear data.
Ann Robinson, director of the comparison site Uswitch, said of her attempt to analyze energy profits, "What opportunities do I have when a forensic accountant says he can't unlock those profits?
But chief financial officer Nick Luff defended Centrica's scarce numbers in the first update after hiking prices.
"The company has released an annual audit report detailing our sources of profit," he said . ".
"We have to keep working so that people can understand and accept it all.
Competitors, including SSE and EDF, have made it clear that they believe the government will cancel green taxes on gas and electricity bills and will cut bills accordingly.
UK gas will also bring in any savings, Luff said, but he added: "We don't know what green taxes will decide, when, or if anything will happen ".
The German boss of rival Npower, RWE, plans to cut 6750 jobs in Europe.
About 2000 call center jobs are expected to be outsourced from the UK to India.