BRITISH Gas firm Centrica said yesterday it planned to tap shareholders for £2.2billion to fund the acquisition of a 25% stake in nuclear generator British Energy (BE).
The fundraising move is a key step towards securing a power-sharing arrangement with EDF Energy once the French company has completed its takeover of BE, which has eight nuclear power stations in the UK.
Under the rights issue, Centrica shareholders will be offered three new shares for every eight held.
The rights issue price of 160p represents a 39.9% discount to the value of the group’s shares based on Thursday night’s close.
Centrica also said second-half operating margins in its residential business were now expected to be better than the first half, but it gave no indication about whether this could lead to lower household energy bills.
Centrica said its latest price rise in July caused a short-term increase in customers leaving the company, but added that account sales were running above withdrawals in recent weeks.
It has 15.6million customer accounts.
Centrica remains in discussions with EDF about the proposed acquisition of a 25% interest in British Energy, which is likely to value the stake at about £3.1billion.
Centrica said the potential tie-up with EDF would make a significant contribution towards reducing its exposure to short-term commodity price fluctuations.