Centrica, grappling with an antitrust probe and the resignations of three senior managers, reported a 31% drop in first-half profit because of losses at its gas-fired power-generation business.
Adjusted net income fell to $897million from $1.3billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
The largest energy supplier to UK households issued a lower profit guidance in May, its second in six months, as a public outcry over increasing living costs prompted it to freeze tariffs.
Today it reduced by a penny its expected range of 21 pence to 22 pence for full-year adjusted earnings per share.
“With challenging trading conditions on both sides of the Atlantic in the first half, earnings will be lower in 2014 than in 2013,” Laidlaw said in the statement.
The UK’s six biggest utilities are facing a Competition and Markets Authority investigation to check if they were unfairly profiting from their market positions, which may lead to a breakup of the generation and supply businesses. The probe will push up costs for the utilities and may lead to additional asset sales, according to Fitch Ratings Ltd.
The biggest utilities include SSE Plc, RWE’s nPower, Iberdrola’s Scottish Power, Electricite de France SA, and EON SE’s UK unit.
Centrica, which is on review for downgrades by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service, said in May it was considering selling three of its biggest gas assets in the UK.
It sold offshore blocks in Trinidad and a unit in Ontario earlier this month.
Iain Conn, BP Plc’s head of refining, will join Centrica as chief executive from January. Chief financial officer Nick Luff announced his departure earlier this year to join Reed Elsevier, and Chris Weston, head of the British gas unit, quit amid reports he had lost out on the top job to Conn.
Centrica said it will take charges on full-year earnings of 40 million pounds after writing off an offshore wind project, and another 110 million pounds associated with the “polar vortex” adverse weather conditions in the US.
It said the average customer bill for its British Gas unit this year is expected to be about £90 ($152), or 7% lower than last year.
