Centrica sees challenging trading conditions in first half
Centrica
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British Gas owner Centrica maintained full year guidance on cash flow and net debt Monday but said a “challenging” environment due to falling gas prices, tariff caps, warmer weather and nuclear outages had forced it to conduct a strategic review of its portfolio.
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“While a number of the factors leading to the challenging trading environment are temporary in nature, they will impact financial performance in the first half of 2019 and have also put some further pressure on the outlook for the full year,” the company said.
The results of the review would be released with interim results in July, Centrica said.
It forecast unchanged full year adjusted operating cash flow of £1.8bn - £2bn and net debt of £3bn - £3.5bn as, cost efficiencies were expected to accelerate in the second half.
The company lost 234,000 UK customers in the first four months of the year as total consumer accounts fell by 20,000 over the period with growth in North America, Ireland and Connected Home.