Centrica surges as takeover rumours bubble

Shares in Centrica, the owner of British Gas, were cooking on gas on Friday sparked by whispers of a takeover.

Centrica has been flagged as a potential target, attracting the attention of a couple of different bidding parties, according to Zak Mir's Wallstreetwires website, which was one of the first to moot the Worldpay takeover.

The potential bidders for the UK's largest energy utility are a consortium of infrastructure investors from Kuwait, Singapore and Canada "looking for a solid purchase of assets and earnings", with their mooted rivals for a deal being "a strategic buyer".

The rumoured takeover price for Centrica could be "as high as 300p", which sent shares in the company shooting higher from their 201p close on Thursday.

Centrica was up 4.6% to 211.2p just after 1100 BST on Friday.

The rumours emerged alongside news that energy regulator Ofgem has launched a probe into exit fees British Gas has levelled against customers who hope to switch to a new supplier.

Following numerous complaints, Ofgem said its investigation would examine whether British Gas breached its licence conditions by failing to waive exit fees for those customers who opted to switch from a fixed tariff within the last 49 days of the contract.