The owner of British Gas has cancelled its dividend after the Covid-19 pandemic caused an oil price collapse, hit energy demand from businesses and left customers struggling to pay bills. Centrica said yesterday that it had taken the “prudent” decision to scrap its proposed 3.5p-a-share final dividend for 2019, saving it £204 million but delivering a further blow to investors, including more than half a million retail shareholders.
Times 3rd April 2020 read more »
Ovo Energy has put a third of its staff on furlough after cancelling non-essential meter reading and instalments. Britain’s third-biggest supplier has about 10,000 employees after the acquisition of SSE’s domestic retail arm in January. It said that 3,400 of these staff would be put on furlough and receive 80 per cent of their salary. The cost of this will be met by the government up to its cap of £2,500 per worker per month, with Ovo topping up to the 80 per cent level for salaries over that threshold. Ovo, which is based in Bristol and run by the entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick, said that its executive team and senior directors had voluntarily taken a 20 per cent pay cut for the next three months. Mr Fitzpatrick, who owns the majority of Ovo, does not draw a salary.
Times 3rd April 2020 read more »
Centrica has cancelled its dividend and suspended asset sales, while Ovo has furloughed more than a third of its workforce, in the first signs of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the already challenged UK energy sector.
FT 2nd April 2020 read more »